Wi-Fi: The Failures of School Boards and the Health Protection Branch

Terence Stone

We are all currently bathing in microwave radiation; so pervasive have transmissions become from a huge range of equipment that its difficult to argue the rationale for putting the brakes on just one more source of emission—but we simply must! Since we have all been bathing in this radiation at incrementally increased levels for some time now, it really is a good analogy to being in a bath: you lie in hot water and incrementally add a little more hot water every few minutes, until you notice your skin getting red and your heart pounding in an effort to cool at the surface of the skin.

Now I bring my baby grandchild into the bath with me. He screams, but I pay no attention. I may be uncomfortable for a while after the bath; unfortunately, I’ve scalded my grandchild who needs medical attention.

So where do we draw the line? Let’s not, eh! It’s too complicated. Let's just add another bucket of boiling water to the microwave bath; we’ll get used to it—no worries; be happy.

Unfortunately, this is an ignorant attitude. It does not take into account that like the bathwater analogy, our children—yes they’re all ours!—are far more susceptible to the effects of radiation than adults. DNA fragmentation occurs at low levels and is cumulative—no less than for the people living on the margins of Fukushima’s no-go zones. So why would most of Canada’s school boards approve of Wi-Fi when they could stay with hard-wired systems? Well, it’s probably because they have departments of Innovation and Learning Technologies, which by their very raison d’etre are fundamentally interested in technologies and not children. They are in the bedrooms of Corporations whose interest is in profit and not children.

Surely, you might say, the Health Protection Branch of the Canadian Government has the health of our children as part of its mandate! Yes; but history reveals over an over how this department of government—under-resourced and subject to subtle steerage by Corporations and their Government bedfellows—has repeatedly failed in its mandate to protect. It is anathema to have the word “protection” in the name of this department, just as I’m coming to really understand that “trustee” in the title School Board Trustee is anathema to the trust we are asked to place in them.

Having once worked as a corporate liaison to the Health Protection Branch, I am aware of so many failures to protect Canadians that a researched list would quickly fill several volumes of Hustler Magazine, displacing its pornography with the pornography of wilful failure to protect our children.

Now it’s important to acknowledge that some school boards such as Saanich, here on Vancouver Island, and individual schools across Canada have embraced the precautionary principle. California has rejected the use of Wi-Fi in schools, as has most of Europe. Surely there is a little smoke being produced by the heat of microwave radiation or why would there be so many notable exceptions to Wi-Fi use in schools?

Following is a letter written by an intelligent, concerned mother, qualified professionally in the health sciences, who has taken the time to research and understand the implications of Wi-Fi as an unnecessary and dangerous exposure for her children. She wrote to her Ward Trustee and the School Board Director, Innovation and Learning Technologies. She provided express permission for me to reprint without names (and what does that say about our vaunted democracy?).

Hi [Ward Trustee],

I appreciate you getting back to me on this matter. 
 
In my research I have found that Health Canada's "safe level limits" are too high in comparison to many other countries, in particular European countries whose safety level limit is up to one thousand times less than Canada's. This "safe level limit" is based on the “thermal effect”, the limits where the heating of human tissues occur, which originated from naval radar military research over 40 years ago. Many physicist and biologists have demanded that this be reviewed, and think that children's exposure to wireless internet  "Wi-Fi" for long periods of time (5 days a week, 6 hours a day) is going to have major long-term consequences, and will be even fatal for many people.
 
I do not want my children or any other children to be "guinea pigs" to this new technology. I think that Calgary Board of Education is making a BIG mistake by installing wireless devices in schools. It is our moral responsibility as parents, teachers, trustees, and other authorities to research this issue more in depth and practice the precautionary principal; since there has been absolutely no research done on children (who are much more vulnerable to radio frequencies than adults) and the effects of “Wi-Fi”.
 
You might be interested to know that there is one city in France in particular whose Mayor has banned wireless internet from all schools and public places. (see 1^st website below). Also other public schools in other cities have decided to independently remove “Wi-Fi” due to its unknown effects (see Safeschool.ca).
 
Long term exposure to “Wi-FI” is going to be an epidemic. Asbestos, DDT and Lead was deemed “safe” by Government Agencies such as Health Canada and the World Health Organization, and not to mention numerous prescription drugs, including Thalidomide.
 
I am asking you, as a Trustee, to do your part and advocate for the children in the Calgary Board of Education School system. We all have a moral obligation, I am doing my part, will you please do yours?  It is easy to “pass the buck” and not take accountability. ”Wi-Fi” is simply a convenience, not a necessity. The risks don’t outweigh the benefits. I hope that you will research this information and are able to support me in promoting a precautionary approach for the sake of our children’s health.
 
You might be interested in looking at the following websites for more information:
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN7VetsCR2I
http://www.magdahavas.com/2010/08/13/wifi-in-schools-and-health-effects/

http://www.listen2yourgut.com/blog/wifi-radiation-exposure-safety-limits-per-country/

Thank you for your time, [Trustee].

Kind Regards,

Jane Doe, RN BN

A copy of this letter was also sent to the Director, Innovation and Learning Technology, at the Board of Education. His reply follows:

Hi Jane Doe,

Thank you for the email and the attachment of the letter you composed to trustees. You have clearly spent a great deal of time doing this and I appreciate the work you put into pulling this information together. Reviewing this has been helpful in ensuring we have data which incorporates multiple perspectives.

Like you, the Calgary Board of Education takes matters pertaining to health and safety very seriously. We also take our responsibility to fulfill our mission of preparing our students to achieve success as active and contributing participants in society very seriously as well [the latter clearly trumps the former in order of priority]. This endeavour does mean working to best leverage the learning resources ["leverage"--taken straight from the discourse of economics, that discredited "science"] and tools of our students’ time, many of which are digital in nature and accessed via networks.

I appreciate your perspectives and feel the information you have forwarded clearly indicates that continued research [pre- or post-mortem?] in relation to wireless is necessary to remove some of the ambiguity that exists regarding RF radiation emitted by wireless technology. In relation to the matter of safety of wireless, I believe this underscores the importance of us taking our guidance from the authoritative government body, Health Canada, whose role it is to establish public health policy and set safety standards. Clearly setting safety standards is not a core part of our business [there you go, it's a "business", not a public trust with our children]. As a result, our system policies and procedures relating to the installation and operation of wireless networking infrastructure must based upon and comply with standards set by Health Canada. At present, emissions from the wireless technology used by the Calgary Board of Education is well below the safe limits identified. Should Health Canada change the safe exposure limits and guidance regarding wireless networking technology at any point in the future the Calgary Board of Education would take measures to re-align our use of wireless networking technology so as to be consistent with these new standards.

You make a very good point about how specific health standards have changed over time as new scientific evidence comes to light. It is my hope that Health Canada will support conducting research that will further investigate the appropriateness of current standards. I hope you can appreciate that it would be inappropriate for the Calgary Board of Education to be setting or imposing health-related guidelines that are inconsistent with those established by Health Canada [No. It would be kinda like...errrrr...leadership, since you already acknowledge that there is a history of Health Canada getting things very wrong!]
 
Again, I appreciate you taking the time and for being proactive in relation to the use of wireless. You are welcome to contact me if you wish to discuss this matter more fully.

Best regards,
Director, Innovation and Learning Technologies


[Square-bracketed comments mine, the blogger]