Is Wi-Fi giving our children cancer?
As the clamour to ban smartphones for teens grows ...
PLENTY of children these days are so obsessed with having internet access – usually on their smartphones – that they will virtually refuse to go on a family holiday unless the hotel or villa has Wi-Fi.
They’re certainly used to being fully ‘connected’ at school, where millions of youngsters who were once taught with chalk on a blackboard now sit in circles on the floor surfing the web on their tablets or phones.
The trouble is that although smartphones are used as educational tools in some lessons, they are the source of online bullying and sex grooming, so much so that the parents and teachers in Blennerville National School in Kerry have decided to ban them not only in class but at home too.
In fact, there is growing frustration among childminders, parents and politicians with Education Minister Richard Bruton who has ignored pleas for a legal ban and instead said he would leave the decision up to schools.
But now there is growing concern not just over the phones but over Wi-Fi with one of the world’s top cancer experts saying the radio waves that send signals between base units and iPads and mobile phones could be as dangerous as ‘tobacco and asbestos’.
Professor Anthony Miller, of Toronto University, couldn’t be blunter, saying: ‘[Wi-Fi] should not be allowed in schools.’
Prof. Miller – who was Director of Canada’s National Cancer Institute’s Epidemiology Unit and has held posts in the World Health Organisation and the German Cancer Research Centre – is not alone in his fears.
He is the latest top scientist to warn that the invisible waves of electromagnetic radiation that now constantly wash over us all – dubbed ‘electrosmog’ by academics – may cause a future cancer epidemic, and that children are most at risk. Some concerned nations have already banned or restricted Wi-Fi, as well as mobile phones – another source of electrosmog – in schools, but not Ireland. Meanwhile, we have effectively been conducting a medical experiment on ourselves, and our children – whom some campaigners now refer to as ‘Generation Zapped’.
THE ubiquitous electrosmog from mobile phones, baby monitors, smart energy meters and a host of other internet-connected products is a billion times stronger than the natural electromagnetic fields in which living cells developed over the past 3,800 million years.
Worryingly, we don’t know how this experiment will end. That is partly because it will take years to play out: massive exposure only began recently and cancers, for example, can take decades to develop. But partly it is because scandalously little research has been done into the possible effects of electrosmog.
Most of the little we are learning comes from studies on mobile phones, which deliver relatively intense doses of the radiation to the head, a cause of deep concern particularly where children are concerned.
Some studies have given them the all-clear, but these have generally only looked at shortterm exposures. By contrast, Swedish research found people exposed to them for ten years or more were twice as likely to develop a malignant brain tumour on the side of the head where they usually held their handsets. This finding was broadly confirmed by a study, covering 13 countries, by the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
These findings caused the Agency to conclude in 2011 that ‘electrosmog’ is a possible cause of the disease in humans.
And Professor Miller believes new research should cause the Agency to condemn the radiation as a clear carcinogen.
Studies have also linked mobiles with cancer of the salivary gland and acoustic neuromas – benign tumours on the auditory nerve that usually cause deafness and problems with balance.
What worries Professor Miller, and other top scientists, is that evidence that mobile phones can cause cancer may be revealing just the tip of the iceberg of a far wider danger from electrosmog.
A room full of Wi-Fi radiation delivers a smaller dose than a mobile phone held to the head. But people are exposed to it for longer in offices, schools or at home, especially if they leave it on overnight.
And it’s not only cancer that causes concern. Campaigners say evidence shows thickening electrosmog may be linked to heart failure, male infertility, autism, severe cognitive impairment and damage to chromosomes and DNA, among other conditions. It is also increasingly accepted that about three in every hundred people are especially sensitive to the radiation, suffering symptoms such as headaches and sleeplessness.
It should be stressed that nothing is proven, and it’s important not to be alarmist, but, whatever the danger, it is children who are most at risk from mobile phones and electrosmog in general. Their developing nervous systems make them more vulnerable. Their skulls are thinner, so their brains get bigger doses. And with decades ahead of them, they will be exposed to more radiation than adults today.
So the proliferation of Wi-Fi into so many of our schools is worrying. While using Wi-Fi, devices emit radiation as well as receive it, which increases children’s exposure. However, more countries and cities are tackling the issue. France has banned Wi-Fi from nursery schools (the younger the child, the greater the danger) and restricted its use in teaching children up to 11. It has also banned mobile phones from schools. But the country’s official Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety has recommended Wi-Fi devices should be regulated as phones are.
CYPRUS has also banned Wi-Fi from kindergartens, and only permits it in the staff offices of junior schools for administration. Israel prohibits it in pre-schools and kindergartens and allows it only to be gradually introduced in class as children get older. The Israeli city of Haifa has hardwired its schools, meaning Wi-Fi is sent through cables instead of wirelessly through the air.
Frankfurt, meanwhile, hardwired 80% of its schools more than a decade ago, while authorities in Salzburg, Austria, wrote to headteachers advising them not to use Wi-Fi as long ago as 2005.
Ghent in Belgium has banned Wi-Fi in pre-schools and daycare centres, while local authorities in Spain and Italy have removed it from schools. Even French Polynesia has prohibited it in nursery schools and limits it in primaries.
But in Ireland the growing clamour for legislation to ban smartphones among children has been ignored by the Government, though pressure is growing. In April, Fianna Fáil demanded a national ban in all schools up to Junior Cert level.
The party’s education spokesman Thomas Byrne said he would try to put a ban into law if the Government was not prepared to agree a nationwide policy and he dismissed as ‘wishy washy’ the announcement by Minister Bruton that he would tell schools to consult parents, teachers and students about smartphones.
Mr Byrne said the issue ‘needs leadership from the top’ and said the minister should simply order schools to ban smartphone use up to Junior Cert level. Though he said many schools have made great advances in this area and introduced a ban or restrictions.
And the move has popular support too, an Irish Daily Mail/ Ireland Thinks poll revealed in January that more than two thirds of people support an age restriction. This was backed up by polls for the TheJournal.ie, and RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live show.
And in February, 92 principals from across the country told this newspaper that they backed the idea of an age restriction.
As Professor Miller recently told a conference, it is time to start taking precautionary measures to protect our children. The alternative is to do nothing and hope for the best. That’s what we did with tobacco and asbestos, and we know how that turned out.
In the Professor’s words: ‘We ignore this at our future peril.’