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Simcoe County School Committee says WiFi causing headaches, memory loss, attention deficit
The Simcoe County Safe School Committee is on a mission to bring awareness about the health issues of WiFi. They are most likely talking about connecting computers to WiFi and not mobile phones but anything is possible these days. Ever since the Board installed Wifi throughout the schools they’ve noticed and have “documented reports from children with such strange problems as they can’t hold a pencil, they feel faint, they have chronic headaches, and they have developed an erratic heart rate requiring medical attention.”
The Committee is looking to get WiFi removed and believe that “WiFi systems is largely redundant and unnecessary” and “recommend safely connecting to the internet with hard-wires”. In total there are about 12 schools that are reporting incidents… but does state that to date there is “no scientific study concluding that long term exposure to microwaves is safe for children.”
Maybe, just maybe these kids just wanted a day off from school.
Check it out here at SafeSchool
Via: PCMag
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26 comments for “Simcoe County School Committee says WiFi causing headaches, memory loss, attention deficit”
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Your title is a little wrong, a Safe Schools Community group is saying this, not the county government.
I’m guessing Board means school board, and the school board holds this data?
Also these people are crazy
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Pure BS. Anyway the beats are going to be exposed to cell phone radiation whether they like it or not. Stupidest bunch of parents ever.
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While I don’t agree with the reason for turning off Wi-Fi, it’s elementary school. Who the hell needs Wi-Fi at an elementary school?
High school, I can’t even see the case for it. It’s not like university where you may need to access stuff online (and even then, mind you, people use it for facebook).
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We are parents and we care about our childrens future! Go home, email your local MP on your laptop with Wifi, or corded to your wifi enabled router. Or simply call them on your radio frequency cell phones or cordless phones!
Or simply keep the car running in the garage with the door down and have tubed attached to the exhaust running into the house.
We care about our childrens future regardless of our sheer ignorance and stupidity! THIS is why we care, we can’t have out kids be smarter than us in intellect and common sense. That would be TOTALLY embarrassing for us as parents, to be proven to be stupid and ignorant.
Now if you excuse me I’m going to have some chemical fast food with my children and let them drink some Red Bulls.
…Stupid stupid STUPID people. lol
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I don’t know how it is in Simcoe County but in Toronto these days in every residential neighborhood I have been in when I scan for WiFi with my BlackBerry I find a couple of networks almost every time everywhere. So even if these parents happen to not have WiFi in THEIR homes, do they really expect me to believe there is no WiFi in their neighborhoods?
Do they all live on farms where the nearest neighbor is a mile away?
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dont most these kids have wifi in their homes already?
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Yeah, I’m sure it has NOTHING to do with kids staying up too late and not getting enough sleep, drinking tons of pop and other sugary drinks loaded with caffeine, and their simple lack of wanting to go to school.
Let me guess, all the symptoms go away on the weekends? It all makes sense now!
My God some parents these days. They need to be sent off to a facility, far far away, with padded walls and where people are ordered to wear mittens all day.
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Have to agree with Troy, while I’m sure WiFi does give off some radiation, I’m sure its less than you’re getting from a phone you carry in your pocket or hold up to your brain.
If these people would talk about banning mobile phones in classrooms, then they might have a point.
That said, if there is some kind of illness that goes away when kids are out of school, maybe there is something wrong with the building?
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Any remember in Germany a few years ago when something similiar happened. A German man complaining about wifi making him sick and giving him rashes for the last six months and had been complaining about the whole time. Technician testified in court that the wireless connection had been taken offline after his first complaint, they hadn’t told him and had been off the whole time he was complaining it was making him sick.
This is total bullshit, more helicopter parents with no idea as to how to actually raise a child and freaking out over nothing, or the wrong things. Children don’t like school and they will fake being sick to get out of it.
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Thats the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Correlation does not equal causation.
“We’ve had a higher than normal number of kids with headaches this year clearly it must be related to wifi”. Simcoe county safe school council is clearly at the forefront of medical science.
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I’m going to say it just because it has been proven to be true: Parents are harming their kids with the FOOD THEY FEED THEM and the stuff they use at home. This is the biggest health hazard for children, not WIFI.
If they want to stop their kids from getting headaches, stop buying them soda, feed them organic produce, stop using household cleaners and chemicals to wash clothes and try to get them to sleep 8+ hours a night. While they are at it, they can remove any product that has been purchased in the last 10 years from their home, because they are gassing out hazardous fumes.
Stop the blame game and take responsibility for your children’s health.
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Strange… they only get sick at school?
Not at home where the same radio frequencies are being emitted by cordless and wireless phones?
Must be WIFI!
Feel free to produce research from a peer-reviewed scientific journal showing a causal link between wifi and headaches.
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Here’s how you prove they’re full of it – Hide the SSID’s and tell everyone you turned off the WiFi. When the “problems” go away, BAM! – placebo effect.
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That wouldn’t work as it’s not a placebo effect to begin with. I doubt very much that the kids are actually blaming WiFi for it, it’s the parents and this committee that are naive enough to think that’s what it is.
Feeling faint, “not being able to hold a pencil”, headaches, increased heart rate; these are all symptoms of not enough sleep, too much sugar and too much caffeine. If they stop selling pop and energy drinks in the school, I bet things would go back to normal.
Until then, the “solution” would be to actually turn off the WiFi for a month. Then when all the parents, etc. see that the symptoms are still there, they’ll realize what a bunch of i****s they are and move on to their next scientifically-baseless theory… like, maybe it’s Grand Theft Auto that’s responsible!
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if this is true… then workplace will have the most headaches and memory losses….
students are focus on their phones instead of what the teacher is talking about… that would be more politically correct…
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The Health Protection Agency points out that a person sitting in a wi-fi hotspot for a year would be exposed to only the same amount of radiation from a 20-minute mobile phone call.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6677051.stm
this pisses me off that some group of hilbilly’s would say this like i live in midlesex county and these are the kinda of poeple that cant understand why not to used lead based paint in schools
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I find that kind of offensive i live in Keswick near lake simcoe and i am by no means a hillbilly……. But honestly these parents are retarded. They should be taking away these kids cell phones which produce massive amounts of radiation compared to a wifi hotspot.
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Do you want to fill those parents in about how much worse an x-ray at the dentist is compared to wifi? LMAO
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lol ironic how this ended up on Mobile Syrup when I just read the one on CBC, Which Im sure is the same, although the regions sound differnt
, anyways, come on guys, Kris, good idea, I’d LOVE to try that and see it actually have that effect because its possible they just dont want to go, small problem, Hidden networks can still detected with certian applications, although its worth a try. and I also agree with Troy and David here, It does give off radiation, even old CRT monitors, apparently 12 inches is how far this radiation can reach, and most schools still use CRT monitors as well, Im 100% sure that if any one of these students DO NOT have a WiFi connection at home, that definitely they are in range of at least 1, more likely 3-5 because ISPs now have WiFi/Cable modem “hybrids” And at “On the weekends the problems disappear” really easy to figure out why 
as a Health Care worker, WiFi does not have a significant impact on health, Heck, at our hospital we even broadcast WiFi, while using a ton of RF equipment everyone is exposed to
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YAY new age moron moms thinking that evil wifi is causing problems despite no real evidence. The best are these new age moms who complain about cell towers going up causing illness in there family, until they are told that the tower isnt even turned on yet, and then the problems magically go away.
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How the heck can the school board determine that there is a correlation between the two things? Lame. Just lame.
Could be about anything.
Unless there is proof that radiation emitted from the Wi-Fi signals cause brain retardation, I suggest those nutjobs who aren’t doing their jobs to improve and enrich the student’s learning, to shut up and pick on something else.
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I’ve grown up with WiFi in my household, and while I do have the occasional health problem, it’s not related to the radiation. There’s other explanations why.
I’m actually in a high school program where laptops are applied to every day classes. So for subjects like English and Science, I use wireless internet every day in class.
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I think is all hype and horse hockey.
It’s the kids way to get out of class room time.
What about the cordless home phone we all have?
and the cellular phone all kids/adults have!
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Daaa hahaha well if the Simcoe County School Committee says it, it must be true! Run for your lives!!!!
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And maybe, just maybe, the author of this article needs to be documented before writing non-sense. Non-ionizing radiation is known to cause exactly these health effects that were described in those kids, studies were conducted starting with the 1960s. Amazing how some journalists are totally misinformed and do not even read the basics before polluting the readership with non-sense.
To the author: maybe, just maybe, you need to ask yourself if perhaps those kids developed health issues, that you so eagerly dismiss. As a journalist, don’t be so biased and do some reading on your own. Particularly about integrity and balance in reporting.
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We exposed our kids to second hand smoke for years before we knew it was an issue. We exposed our kids to asbestos for years before we knew it was an issue. Mercury in flourecent bulbs is raising eyebrows and so should WiFi until we are more informed. I work as a computer tech in a school board and frequently feel foggy while at schools but it goes away on weekends.
When did schools get the right to expose children to potential carcinogens without the consent of their parent? When did schools get the right to threaten teachers who question their policies? When did we develop such an intolerant system that is more common in fascist regimes than in democratic societies? It is everyone’s obligation to be concerned about this issue. World Health Organization released an article on May 31st 2011. I suggest you all have a have a read.
http://www.magdahavas.com
Dr. Magda Havas at Trent University may also be considered ignorant but until someone smarter than a doctor teaching at university level says otherwise Im skeptical about WiFi too.
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