

Parents suspect Wi-Fi making kids sick - GiraffeNecktie
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/08/15/ontario-wifi.html?ref=rss

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patio11
_The parents complain they can't get the Simcoe County school board or anyone
else to take their concerns seriously, even though the children's symptoms all
disappear on weekends when they aren't in school._

Somebody please tell me this was intended as a punchline. If so, it is
_beautifully_ arch.

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tptacek
Great lines in science reporting, 2010:

 _"I'm not saying it's because of the Wi-Fi because we don't know yet, but
I've pretty much eliminated every other possible source."_

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DenisM
Surely this one is better:

 _Well what doctor has been schooled about the rate of microwave infections?_

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GiraffeNecktie
Who needs schooling? Everyone knows that a microwave infection can be cleared
up in a few days with an over-the-counter ointment.

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atestu
I hear homeopathy works pretty well for this kind of things.

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ben1040
I'm 100% sure that these kids have absolutely no issues at home, where their
parents operate cordless phones and microwave ovens in the same unlicensed
spectra, and their house is bombarded by WiFi signals from their neighbors (in
my previous home, I could see 20+ unique SSIDs).

I love one of the reader comments to this article; I can't tell if it's
serious or just a beautifully crafted troll. I'm worried it's the former:

 _The eyes are very sensitive to EMR and you will notice many young people now
wear ball caps and granny sunglasses even when it is cloudy. This is similar
to sun blindness._

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ScotterC
Oh yay more electro-sensitivity BS. Completely unverifiable claims of people
who think electronics hurt them. Here's a blog post I saw on the matter:
[http://depletedcranium.com/interesting-new-
electrosenstivity...](http://depletedcranium.com/interesting-new-
electrosenstivity-claim/)

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jdc
"In all cases, the measured Wi-Fi signal levels were very far below
international exposure limits (IEEE C95.1-2005 and ICNIRP) and in nearly all
cases far below other RF signals in the same environments."

From this study: Radiofrequency exposure from wireless LANs utilizing Wi-Fi
technology.

Abstract: <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17293700>

Full text: <http://www.medfordumc.org/celltower/wifirfexposure.pdf>

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Rhapso
What is the banana equivalent dose of a strong wifi signal?

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carbocation
Not a physicist. However, I'll take a qualitative stab.

Radiation that we care about (mostly beta and gamma) is measured in rems,
which is essentially a biological statement about how much tissue damage is
associated with a certain dose of a specific type of radiation.

I assume that WiFi releases no beta particles (electrons), so we're just
talking about EM emission: visible light, X-rays, gamma rays, all that fun
stuff.

Your WiFi equipment is emitting in the microwave spectrum. The energy of
photons at these wavelengths is orders of magnitude weaker than the energy of
ionizing radiation (essentially gamma radiation). If you don't ionize, then
there is no currently known mechanism by which you can cause cellular damage
(except via thermal damage ;-) ).

If we were to posit the WiFi emitter as a blackbody radiator, it would have to
be thousands (millions?) of times hotter than room temperature to have an
appreciable emission of gamma radiation thanks to Planck's Law.

In other words, I'd guess that 1 banana probably emits as much ionizing
radiation as all WiFi emitters have for all time.

If you want an unreliable quantitative statement, try this:
[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/featu...](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/features/article665419.ece)
(1 year of strong WiFi = 20 minutes on a cell phone - which as far as we know
is also 0 rem).

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DenisM
Another anti-vaccination movement? Oh dear.

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nanairo
I am not saying I believe there's any correlation, but I think the parents
concerns do deserve a closer investigation: sure there might be no
correlation, but maybe there is.

That's the scientists job: let the investigate and their final word is it.

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mx12
This is an example where everyone needs a fundamental lesson is statistics:
Correlation does not imply causation.

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matthavener
They'll probably want to ban cordless phones as well..

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serichsen
Is there a plausible mechanism?

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blueben
By which wifi can cause illness? No.

