Mobile phones and wi-fi 'should be banned from schools as they are potentially harmful'

Mobile phones and wi-fi 'should be banned from schools as they are potentially harmful'

www.dailymail.co.uk

Wireless devices 'can cause cancer and affect developing brains'
Mobiles 'might have cognitive effects and impact on sleep' says professor leading separate study
An influential European body has warned that mobile phones and wi-fi Internet connection should be banned from schools as they are 'potentially harmful' to pupils.
A committee set up by the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states, has released a report which believes that it is crucial to tackle the issue now before it's too late,

(visit the link for the full news article)

Very interesting that such a prominent body the 'Council of Europe' has come down so firmly and said these things are harmful. They go so far as to say that wireless baby monitors are harmful and wireless/cordless telephones.

This has got me thinking about my own house. I have a wireless network and two children under 4 and a baby on the way. I and my partner have mobile phones and we use cordless phones in the house. However, even if I eradicated these things from my life our neighbours have wireless networks and cordless phones whose signals encroach into my property and of course there are mobile phone masts in a near proximity to where I live.

I am glad a definitive recommendation has been made in respect of mobile networks and school wireless networks etc but how far do I go as an individual? Do I take this as gospel fact, remove my wireless network? Interested to know what others think?

For interest I looked at whether any schools in the UK had mobile phone masts on their premises and my first search turned up this mastvictims.org 2008

"Some masts need planning permission, but others under a certain height can be erected without permission. We haven't had any applications for large masts for some time now."

At the start of the mobile phone boom, Rotherham Council opposed a number of applications for masts, including one next to the landmark Hoober Stand at Wentworth, which was eventually built nearer Rawmarsh.

There was also considerable opposition to a mast next to a school at Thrybergh after parents feared it would be a health risk and Rotherham currently has no masts sited on school premises.

The statistics have raised concerns from green campaigners who fear not enough is known about the effects of the masts on health. Two of the masts in Doncaster are on school property.

Orange masts at Mexborough and Rossington are sited in school grounds though the council stress they are t
he results of a private agreement between the schools and the phone company, negotiations in which the council was not involved.

Obviously having this announcement must mean that governments and councils who take no action to protect their citizens must be liable for any harm, in addition to the phone companies who provide the masts.

I'll be seriously interested to see the feedback here and in the media at large. I suspect it is an issue that most people will be apathetic about unless they have seen some really serious illnesses in their own lives linked to wireless signals. I think it will in the large be ignored in the real world and by ATS.

The committee, which was made up of 84 MPs and politicians from member states, believes that member states should impose the following:
Introduce thresholds for levels of long-term exposure to microwaves emitted by mobile phones;
Make sure there is clear labelling on products which indicates that electromagnetic fields could be harmful;
Have a strict ban on all mobile phones and wireless networks in schools;
Begin information campaigns, aimed at children and young adults, about the risks to human health;
Increase research on less-dangerous types of antennae and mobile phones.
The World Health Organisation and the Department of Health had earlier ruled that exposure to electromagnetic fields poses little or no risk to human health, so these findings contradict that school of thought.
The Council of Europe - a highly respected organisation whose findings tend to steer government legislation - called on heads of state to 'take all reasonable measures to reduce exposure to electromagnetic fields'.
The ban on mobile phones in schools was adopted unanimously by the organisation's Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by spacedonk

And this after we have found out in several ATS threads that cell phones may also be responsible for the dwindling bee population! Good find. I wonder if anyone is searching for a solution to the mobile problem or if they're just playing it off because of the large market for cell phones (profit)? Here's the bee link...


Cell phones killing bees?

reply to post by visualmiscreant


I saw the Bee story, actually have followed it for the last few years. The research although not definitive was certainly revealing and opened up a strong reason for the dwindling numbers.

This story goes on to tke opinion from several other 'experts' and unfortunately you seem right tht the economics of the situation will take over. sorry for the long quote but I thought all three peoples opinions were relevant:

Professor Les Barclay, the vice-chairman of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme, told the Sunday Telegraph: 'We haven’t had mobile phones for very long and there are now studies going on to look for longer-term effects. 'There is very little evidence at the moment for harmful effects. The powers that mobile phones emit are getting less and less, and they are well below the limits set by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection. 'Banning mobile phones and wireless networks in schools is a step too far in my eyes.' However, a separate study, led by Professor Paul Elliot of Imperial College, London, was more damning. 'There are potential questions about whether mobile phones might have cognitive effects and impact on sleep,' Prof Elliot was quoted as saying in the Sunday Telegraph. 'Mobile phone technology is clearly incredibly beneficial and useful, but we have to weigh up those potential health effects, so it is responsible to do research on that. 'In children, that research has not yet really been done, so we need more research in this area. In the meantime the advice is not to be excessive in use.' General secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, Russell Hobby, said that a ban on mobile phones and wireless networks in schools would cause chaos. 'The impact on schools would be enormous,' he told the Sunday Telegraph. 'Most schools have wi-fi networks now, while pupils and teachers carry mobile phones. 'Many schools are shifting towards far more mobile computing so pupils can have laptops they can take home to do their homework on. This would prevent all of that.' Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

'the vice-chairman of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme' is this organisation funded by mobile phone operators I wonder?

reply to post by spacedonk


It seems that no matter what we do, many tech advances will hurt us in the long run.

The birth of the industrial age has harmed the planet with greenhouse gas and pollution, CFC's harmed the atmosphere. Now with wireless technology and mobile/cell phones it affects us along with other types of signals or radiation.

What next? In 10 years time will they find that digital TV signals have an adverse effect on us similar to mobile phones and wifi as opposed to analogue TV signals.

Thanks for sharing the news

The sad thing is though, it never seems to matter. People will still use Wifi and cell phones. Stand next the microwave as it blasts your food with radiation, injest toxic chemicals in the form of drugs, smoking, alcohol or the junk that is put in our food more and more.

To many people ignorance is bliss today but harmfull in the long run.

Is it normal for kids to be using mobile phones and wi-fi in schools these days?

When I was at school (which wasn't that long ago, really) mobile phones were banned full-stop. You could have them on your person but you would have to have them switched off during all school-hours.

reply to post by The Empty Skies


Many schools have Wifi though, not only for the teachers but also for students. It is supposed to be for study porpuses and some classes that use laptops. In my high school half the classes of each year level used laptops instead of paper etc and that was in year 7 ( 1997 ) remember the good old pcmcia slot wirless cards...


But i am sure more popular for Facebook and Twitter in some cases.

i dont think anything should be removed for being "potentially harmful" except government employees.

reply to post by Havick007


It is too true that we always find out the harmful aspects of things after they have been used by the general populace. The problem is that people always want an instant fix, there is no waiting for assessments of safety and there is always someone to exploit the fact commercially. I am as guilty of the next man in this!

Unfortunately when someday some technology is released that becomes the 'big' killer it will be far too late by then.

Wireless technology has always been talked about in terms of danger for children under 12 because of the thickness of their skulls, which is why IMO NO child under that age should ever be allowed to own one or use one. Seeing as the under twelves aren't exactly the biggest economic driver their needs and the dangers to them are forgotten and the desires of the people with spending power win over every time.

In respect of the poster above talking about schools, my mum works in a school and all 6th formers have a school issued wireless laptop, kindles are available and some ipads I think, all of these appliances are hooked up to use the school wireless networks. Phones are banned in most schools - i.e. should be turned off, but if it was anything like the chewing gum ban when I was at school...

Bad news. I don't know what I'd do without wifi and cell phone!

There's no doubt in my mind, that putting a microwave transmitter (which is what a mobile phone is) next to your head, is ultimately going to cause some people problems later on in their life. We all know they get uncomfortabley hot next to your ear if you are using them for a long period of time.

Be careful and use them for short periods of time.Take them out of your pocket when travelling in a car, to stop them ramping up the power to try and reach masts as you're driving in between masts. Don't use bluetooth headsets.

WIfi and mobile phones and bluetooth are similar power levels (100mW upwards) and similar frequencies 2-2.4GHz.

I don't have the link saved, but I remember Alex Jones saying that we were all being tracked in real time by GPS capabilities of our wireless devices. He said this was obvious due to the fact that GPS records are being used in criminal courts to prosecute defendants. When we teach our children to carry their own tracking devices at a young age, it becomes habit, and assures their carrying these devices as adults. I think this could be a determining factor in the removal or ban of these devices in schools. It probably won't happen...

Honestly I think cell phones should be banned from school, but not because they're 'harmful'. Really, why do kids need cellphones in school? You're at school. You're supposed to be doing school things! Like going to class, doing school work, studying..? Not texting and twittering and recording your local school's "fight club" bouts to upload to Youtube. When I was in school, there weren't any of these smart phones that let you do everything a computer does, and if you even pulled your phone out during school hours, even at lunch, it would get confiscated until the end of the day. Yeah, some people may say OMG NAZIS but come on. Every time I see some teen these days, they have a cellphone glued to their ear or they're texting. Even little kids. Why the heck does an 8-10 year old need a cellphone?

Anyway! /rant

I don't use wifi. I live in an urban area and there's signals everywhere, so I use my itouch out at restaurants to update chess+words with friends games, and that's about all I need the signal for. At home, I just don't want a wireless router in my place. I still use the cell phone, but never carry it on my body, except in my hand to transport it or sometimes when taking calls. Never do I place it near my head, it's always speaker-phone at least a few feet away from my head and junk, usually my arm is extended out a bit. I don't care what some people say, or if I look weird. I'm not stupid and realize the potential risks involved.

I did some looking around and found that parents are trying to get wifi out of schools in many countries.This site has a lot of current technical research and studies showing how many countries are agreeing with this stance, except...North America:

www.safeinschool.org

I don't get it. Is this another "Wifi networks and mobile phones are bad" type of scare? And then there's always the calming assurance that "there is no significant danger to the public."

If they ban Wifi in schools, it must mean that.. it really is harmful. Correct? Are the schools going to police their parents at home where I'm sure they have Wifi there too? What's the point then? lol.

They got smoking out of schools. They can't get smoking out of homes. Parallel issue.