Wi-Fi as a Health Risk?

An article published on The Times reports that parents and teachers are trying to get UK schools to take down their wireless networks for a health risk. You gotta be kidding me. Apparently, "low levels of microwave radiation emitted by the transmitters could be harmful, causing loss of concentration, headaches, fatigue, memory and behavioural problems and possibly cancer in the long term."

On the off chance that anyone spoken about in that article is reading this post right now, let me put this into perspective. Your kids don't sit right next to the access point all day. It's high up on the ceiling or across the room at all times. The same wireless technology in those access points is used in those 2.4GHz frequency cordless phones your kids talk on after school for hours at a time - and it's right next to their head, not across the room. Oh and here's an even better example, cell phones. You can't shake a stick at Wi-Fi being harmful when the radiation emitted from mobile phones is much more powerful. Mobile phones also "handshake" with cell phone towers frequently so there is radiation being emitted even when not in use. These mobile phones sit in your kids' pockets all day.

Stowe School, the Buckinghamshire public school, also removed part of its wireless network after a teacher became ill. Michael Bevington, a classics teacher for 28 years at the school, said that he had such a violent reaction to the network that he was too ill to teach.

“I felt a steadily widening range of unpleasant effects whenever I was in the classroom,” he said. “First came a thick headache, then pains throughout the body, sudden flushes, pressure behind the eyes, sudden skin pains and burning sensations, along with bouts of nausea. Over the weekend, away from the classroom, I felt completely normal.”

What?!? That's more bull crap than having to wait infinitely for a check to come from a mail-in rebate. So does this mean that the next time I get sick, I can get the doctor to write a note stating the ubiquitous campus Wi-Fi caused my illness? I have to go now; I think the electromagnetic field created by my hard drive's motor is making me sick.