INVISIBLE Is wifi a danger to our kids? »»WHO advisor »»Effects make warns of cancer life unbearable, timebomb fear claim sufferers
router months later. Debra, of Chadlington, Oxon, said: “All her symptoms eased or went away when she came home, particularly at weekends and holidays. We wanted to take her to the GP but thought our fears would be dismissed.”
She told how Jenny then failed to show up at school one day in June 2015. She said: “She’d texted a friend, hinting at what she was going to do. But they’d left their phone at home.
“When they realised something was wrong another friend came to tell me and we went out looking for her.”
Close to tears, Debra told how she saw her daughter in the distance, beside a tree. She said: “I thought she was standing on the bough of the hill.
“I was calling out her name, asking if she was okay and reassuring her.
“It was only as I got closer I realised she wasn’t standing at all and there was a noose around her neck.”
Surveys have shown up to five per cent of people believe they are affected by sensitivity to radio waves. Experts are divided over whether the technology can actually cause harm.
And even insurance firms play safe, with some refusing outright to cover schools against claims for exposure.
Lloyds of London syndicate CFC Underwriting excludes school liability for injuries “resulting from or contributed to by electromagnetic fields, electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetism, radio waves or noise.”
Another firm, Zurich, will offer cover. But Tilden Watson, head of education products, said: “As with any insurance, we would consider the school’s specific involvement in use and supply of the technology.”
The International Agency for Research on Cancer – a branch of the World Health Organization – classes wifi as a Group 2B cancer risk, meaning there is not yet enough evidence to dismiss a possible link.
Wifi is included because it uses similar technology to mobile phones.
Public Health England says a year spent near to a wifi hotspot would give the same dose of radio waves as a 20-minute mobile call.
Canadian Dr Miller believes WHO should increase the risk rating.
He said: “We know that when humans are exposed to cancercausing agents, it’s usually quite a delay before