By Erika Engel
Published in the Meaford Express
MEAFORD - A group of parents with children attending St. Vincent Euphrasia Elementary School in Meaford want to ban wireless Internet access from the classroom.
SVE parent council sent out 210 copies of what it called a "consent form" asking parents if they thought WiFi at SVE should be shut down or if they thought the wireless internet was safe enough to leave running.
The form was intended to garner parent support for the parent council's decision to have the WiFi system turned off at the school.
"Some Ontario parents are reporting their children have become ill since their schools installed WiFi microwave transmitters [for wireless internet service]," stated the form sent home to SVE parents.
The form went on to state that the biological effects as reported by the Royal Society of Canada to Health Canada include weakening of the blood-brain barrier, increased enzymes known to promote cancer in humans, a disruption in calcium regulation, behavioural and biochemical changes.
Andrew Couper, a member of the SVE parent's council, said that 70 consent forms were returned, and of those, 62 (88 per cent) showed support for the council's campaign to shut off the wireless Internet transmitters in the school.
Parent council wants the school to use wires to connect to the Internet instead of the WiFi system currently used.
"After learning the whole story about risks for their children, the parents voted to protect their children's health," said Couper in a news release from the SVE parent's council.
The release explained that parents across Canada are reporting an assortment of symptoms in their children since their schools have been using WiFi Internet service. Those symptoms include headaches, nausea, and Tachycardia (sudden, racing heart beats). Those same parents are reporting that those symptoms go away on the weekends and during summer vacation while their child is away from school.
"Once parents realized that the computers still connect to the internet with hardwires and that turning off WiFi transmitters won't change the way their kids connect at school, they decided it's not worth the risk," said Couper. "Parents don't want to wonder whether those headaches, or that nausea, or that racing heart rate is being caused by the WiFi system in their child's school."
Former SVE parent, Angela Klein, removed her daughter from the school this year because she doesn't want to risk health effects relating to microwave radio frequency exposure from WiFi transmitters.
The SVE parent council has asked the Bluewater District School Board twice this year to have the WiFi transmitters shut down at SVE - once in May and once in September. Couper said the parent council was advised to get support from other parents. He said that's why the council sent out the consent form. Now the results of the survey have been sent to all members of the parent council and once again the parent council, unanimously, support a petition to the school board to shut down WiFi transmitters at SVE.
"The board has heard the will of the parents," said Klein in the parent council news release. "We understand this is an unnecessary risk and we want it off. I hope the board does the right thing now and turns it off."
Couper has given the information from the survey to local trustee, Paul Wehrle.
Werhle said his hands are tied until he receives a motion - or formal decision - from parent council to the board asking to remove WiFi from SVE and return to a hard-wired Internet access system.
"I expect [a motion] will come forward," said Werhle. "And I am prepared to take the issue forward to the board."
Werhle said he will be talking to the new Bluewater Director of Education about the issue.
Bluewater District School Board : The Health and Safety response
Health and Safety Officer for Bluewater District School Board, Ron Motz, said WiFi in schools is safe.
Motz said the WiFi transmitters use radio frequency levels that are within the standards set in Health Canada's Safety Code 6, which is a federal government document used as a guideline for devices, which produce radio frequency fields.
Essentially, Safety Code 6 uses information from tests done to measure the amount of microwave radiation required to increase the internal temperature of a person or their organs. The standards set in Safety Code 6, a Health Canada document, are supposed to protect against this type of thermal effect.
Motz said thermal exposure is "the only known and proven hazard of radio frequency exposure" and that there are no other "proven mechanism's of damage."
Regarding the symptoms that parents claim their children are suffering since WiFi has become widely distributed in Canadian schools, Motz said they are "very general," and "can be caused by a number of things."
"Wireless Internet isn't the first place I'd look for those symptoms," said Motz.
The Bluewater District School Board hired an independent lab, LEX Scientific Inc, to measure radio frequency levels at St. Vincent school and at Ripley-Huron Community School.
The board claimed those two schools were representative of the other elementary schools in the district and have the same WiFi infrastructure as the rest of the schools in Bluewater.
According to a news release sent out by the school board, the tests were conducted in different areas throughout the school while all computers were running and using the WiFi system at the same time.
Safety Code 6 allows for a maximum exposure limit of 1,000 microwatts per square centimetre for general, everyday environments like homes, offices, schools and street. Tests conducted at SVE revealed the peak exposure in the school was 0.23 mircowatts per square centimetre.
The school board's news release on the results of the testing concluded that the radio frequency levels of the WiFi systems in Bluewater schools is more than a hundred times below the Safety Code 6 requirements. The news release also said that the LEX report concludes there is no health and safety reason to discontinue the use of WiFi in Bluewater District schools.
A copy of the report was not available for review by the Meaford Express. Motz said the report was not for mass distribution. Arrangements to view the report at a Bluewater location could not be made before press time.
Health Canada and the local health unit
Dr. Hazel Lynn, the medical officer of health for the Grey-Bruce Public Health Unit, said she supports Health Canada's Safety Code 6.
"Number one, with environmental exposures it's really difficult to quantify exposure," said Lynn. "The symptoms are vague, and it's hard to say what's the source ... The numbers would suggest that we're getting way more exposure with cell phones than with WiFi. If you have symptoms, I can't argue with that."
Lynn said that there's been no evidence to link illnesses to radio frequency exposure within Safety Code 6 limits.
She admits that WiFi is new technology and says experts are taking a look at it. "We don't know yet," she said. "I'm not about to say they don't cause any problems."
Lynn said that ultimately, WiFi in schools is a decision that should be made in consultation with a parent's advisory group.
Health Canada released a statement regarding the use of WiFi and published it to its website.
"Based on scientific evidence, Health Canada has determined that exposure to low-level radio frequency energy, such a that from WiFi equipment, is not dangerous to the public," read the statement.
According to Health Canada, exposure that falls below the limits set in Safety Code 6 is not dangerous to school children or to Canadians in general.
"Health Canada scientists continually review new scientific studies in this area to ensure safety guidelines are sufficient for the protection of the health and safety of Canadians," read the statement on Health Canada's website.
According to the statement, Health Canada is also participating in international standards development and advisory bodies.
A 1999 report by the Royal Society of Canada, requested by Health Canada, looks at research done on the effects of human exposure to radio frequency fields and the merits of the standards in Safety Code 6.
In general the report agrees that Safety Code 6 will protect the general public from thermal effects (internal body or organs heating). However, the report mentions that it is clear there are observed non-thermal biological effects that will result in exposure to radio frequency levels deemed safe in Safety Code 6.
The report states that "there is a growing body of scientific evidence which suggests that exposure to radio frequency fields at intensities far less than levels required to produce measurable heating can cause effects in cells and tissues."
The report explains that there are "documented effects" of radio frequency fields, event at low, non-thermal exposure levels below Safety Code 6 exposure limits.
The effects include alterations in the activity of the enzyme ornithine decarboxylase, in calcium regulation and in the permeability of the blood brain barrier.
The report concluded that existing scientific evidence is incomplete and inadequate to rule out the possibility that the non-thermal biological effects could lead to adverse health affects. The panel supported additional research in the area of non-thermal effects from exposure to radio frequency fields.
Gary Holub, a spokesman for Health Canada, said Health Canada doesn't consider WiFi to be a health risk, and said there is no conclusive evidence of any long-term or cumulative health risks from exposure to low-intensity radio frequency energy.
"It is important to point out that the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel on Radio frequency Fields conducted their review of the science in 1998 and published their report in 1999," said Holeb in an email. "At that time, only a very limited number of studies had been completed in this field of research and many of the studies were of questionable quality due to inadequate exposure conditions and equipment. Many original studies finding biological effects at low levels of RF energy were of poor scientific quality, lacked proper dosimetry which could lead to sample over-exposure and/or thermal effects, and were subsequently not reproducible in other laboratories."
Holeb said studies done since then have been "much better" and Health Canada scientists are "continually reviewing new scientific studies" to ensure safety guidelines are sufficient.
"Health Canada will take immediate action to revise the guidelines should new convincing evidence arise."
On the Health Canada website, in a list of research done on radio frequency energy and health, the 1999 Royal Society of Canada report Holeb refers to is included in the list with an explanation saying the conclusion of the report was: "Because of the low field strengths associated with public exposure to radio frequency fields from wireless telecommunications base station transmitters, neither biological nor adverse health effects are likely to occur."
A challenge to Safety Code 6
Dr. Magda Havas is an associate professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University where she teaches and studies biological effects of environmental contaminants.
She's challenging standards contained in Health Canada's Safety Code 6.
"I'm concerned with exposure," said Dr. Havas. "I don't think it's a good thing."
She said there have been virtually no studies done on the effects of long-term exposure to WiFi microwave radiation.
"How can we be using the technology when we haven't studied the effects?" she asks. "Why expose our most vulnerable? The government assumes it is safe."
She said there has been research into the effects of exposure to microwave radiation from cell phones and cell phone towers, and uses that information to form her opinion on WiFi in schools.
She said that a study on rats exposing them to a frequency similar to WiFi showed an increase in tumours and interference with the immune system.
"In Safety Code 6, all they can state is that [exposure to low-level microwave radiation] will not heat your body," said Dr. Havas. "Even that is coming under question."
She said there are some cell phones that meet Safety Code 6 requirements that are causing heads to heat up.
The United States and Canada use the same standards, but European countries have much stricter guidelines for exposure levels.
In Switzerland, China, Russia, Poland and Hungary, according to Havas, the acceptable levels of radiation are about one per cent of Canada's standards.
In Canada, the acceptable level of exposure for a regular, everyday environment is 1,000 microwatts per square centimetre. In Europe, some countries limit that exposure to 10 microwatts per square centimetre. There are some countries with an acceptable level of exposure set at 0.1 microwatts per square centimetres.
Dr. Havas said that the measured levels at St. Vincent Euphrasia School are "quite low", but noted that exposure to the radiation would increase if a student was touching a computer.
She said there is scientific evidence, which is included in the Royal Society of Canada's expert panel review of Safety Code 6, that there may be an effect on the permeability of the blood brain barrier, which filters the blood that goes to the brain.
There also is evidence in the panel review to suggest that exposure within the limits set in Safety Code 6 can cause changes to how calcium moves through the body, can increase enzymes associated with cancer and can damage DNA cells as they are produced in the body.
The physics behind WiFi Clarke's area of expertise is radio frequency radiation, and she's been doing quantitative literature review in that field since 1997. She's working out of Boston currently, but travels a lot to present to groups such as the one that gathered at the L.E. Shore library this summer. According to Clarke, there are three things to measure when looking at exposure to microwave radiation. Firstly, Clarke said one must measure the intensity at which the waves are flowing, which is measured in Gigahertz. A typical WiFi transmitter deploys waves at a rate of approximately 2.4 Gigahertz, or 2.4 billion cycles pas through a point in one second. Essentially, that's how fast the waves are travelling. Second, Clark said a microwave must be measured for its wavelength. She said a WiFi wavelength is about 12-centimetres long from start to finish. This is important for a process called resonance. Simply put, an object that is the same size as that wavelength will maximally absorb that wave. This includes objects such as a child's brain. This process can be illustrated with tuning forks. One tuning fork once hit and will emit sound waves that will cause another tuning fork to vibrate and emit the same tone because it maximally absorbs the sound waves emitted from the first fork. Thirdly, a wave can be measured in power density, which is the familiar microwatts per square centimetre measurements that were used to measure WiFi in schools. In the case of St. Vincent Euphrasia school, the WiFi system peaks at 0.23 microwatts per centimetre.
Susan Clarke, director of the Environmental Health Advocacy league, of the United States was in The Blue Mountains this summer speaking at the L.E. Shore Memorial Library. She's been studying microwave radiation such as the type used in WiFi transmitters and believes Canada's standards aren't strict enough.
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