NK Prepares to Install WIFI in Schools: But is it Safe?

As North Kingstown prepares to spend $688,000 on WIFI in the schools
are we asking the tough questions? Sure, WIFI is ubiquitous. You can't completely get away from it 24/7. So, it may feel risky, even scary, to ask the question, "Is it safe to install WIFI in our schools?" After all, most of us are exposed to WIFI at work or even at home. Still, don't we owe it to our children to ask the question before the WIFI gets installed?

Mary Adkins, M.Ed. Rhode Island Regional Director of Citizens for Safe Technology has been advocating that communities across Rhode Island educate themselves on this issue before rushing to implement technology in our schools. So as our North Kingstown High School and Elementary Schools prepare to install WIFI, here are some facts she shared:

1. "The American  Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has done its homework on this issue.  This organization representing 60,000 pediatricians has sent a letter to Congress, begging them to stop this unnecessary exposure of our children to wireless electromagnetic radiation.  Under Rhode Island state law (§28-21-2(13)), wireless radiation is considered a toxic substance in the workplace due to its classification by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a class 2b carcinogen.  Does this sound safe for our children and teachers?"

2. "The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has something to say about Wi-Fi in schools, too:  “The peer reviewed, scientific literature demonstrates the correlation between (radio frequency) RF exposure and neurological, cardiac, and pulmonary disease as well as reproductive and developmental disorders, immune dysfunction, cancer and other health conditions.  The evidence is irrefutable.”  (http://aaemonline.org/docs/WiredSchools.pdf ) That's why the AAEM supports the use of HARDWIRED internet connections in schools."

3. "There is a lot of misinformation about Wi-Fi being promulgated by industry, and sadly, echoed by school administrators and IT directors who have no expertise in bio-sciences.  Wi-Fi is a cute marketing meme that coupled with aggressive marketing has school officials, parents and children all duped into thinking that Wi-Fi is magic that floats through the air like butterflies.  But Wi-Fi is not magic, it is radiation....an artificial, man made, pulse/modulated form of radiation that has been known for decades to be detrimental to human health.   Radiation does not magically lose its hazardous qualities because it is invisible.

"Big Players like Cisco, Apple, and AT&T convince you Wi-Fi is “safe” because it meets FCC guidelines.  Yet the guidelines don't actually apply to pulse/modulated radiation, nor to children, nor to multiple, co-located devices and chronic, 6+ hours a day of exposure.  The Big Players are busy raking in a fortune from the “21st Century Learner” program, the goal of which is to get a wireless device into the hands of every student in the country.  School administrators are busy too-- handing out awards and patting themselves on the backs for building huge wireless infrastructures.  But what no one has told you is that fortunes are being made and legacies are being built by playing Russian Roulette with your child's life."

4. "The biggest trial lawyers association in the world, the American Association for Justice (AAJ), has been paying attention.  They've publicly thrown down the gauntlet to the Wireless industry ( ) in a complaint to the FCC, acknowledging that wireless radiation health effects are equatable to the same disease latency as that from nuclear radiation exposure.  The AAJ has done their homework. And as if the carcinogenic nature of this radiation isn't bad enough, the wireless signal oscillating at 2.45 GHz has also been found to cause heart arrhythmia and tachycardia, as detailed in a study by Magda Havas, PhD."

According to Atkins, "In school districts across Rhode Island and the nation, teachers are dying, kids are getting cancer, and school staff and students alike are getting sick in record numbers with unexplained symptoms such as headaches, nausea, dizziness, weakness, fatigue, heart palpitations, chronic sinus and respiratory symptoms, attention problems, and changes in behavior.  Is it from Wi-Fi?  I am networked with parents from across the country who believe that it is, and many have had to remove their children from school."

Atkins says that, "The AAJ's FCC complaint suggests they anticipate a rash of lawsuits resulting from harm caused by wireless radiation that will make Big Tobacco, Asbestos, and Lead Paint litigation look like a cakewalk.
But it seems our school officials are more concerned about getting their fair share of the Wireless Pork Barrel kickbacks from big Telecom's gaming of the US Department of Education's E-Rate Program.  Have we learned nothing from the lessons of Big Tobacco, Asbestos, and Lead Paint?   History is repeating itself, and unfortunately this time it's our children and teachers who are suffering the consequences."

Parents, teachers and members of the public who want to promote the use of only safe, hardwired  technology in our schools may email Mary Atkins at rhodeislandcst@gmail.com for information about upcoming monthly meetings and can also go to the website www.citizensforsafetechnology.org.