Health concerns arise over wireless Internet in schools

BY KIRK STARRATT

The Advertiser

NovaNewsNow.com

She has advocated against cell phone technology in the past. Now a Wolfville woman is trying to keep wireless Internet from being installed in local schools her children attend out of concern for their health.

Barb Lake, who has been forced to move five times in three years to escape the negative health effects she and her family members have experienced due to exposure to electromagnetic radiation from cellphone transmissions, said it has been an ongoing request of hers since 2002 that her children’s teachers leave their cellphones in their desks turned off.

She put her daughter in Wolfville School last September so she would be within walking distance, but it only lasted a few weeks because there was a conflict with a teacher who didn’t want to turn his or her cellphone off. Lake said she transferred her daughter back to Gaspereau Elementary. “They were well aware of our concerns and have been for several years,” she said.

Even though most people aren’t affected by the electromagnetic fields or radiation associated with cellphone and wireless Internet technology, Lake said she and her children have a heightened sensitivity and this is probably the case with a small percentage of the population.

Therefore, she was concerned to learn of plans to install wireless Internet technology in schools her children attend and is concerned with the safety of the technology in general.

Doctor’s letter says, no cellphones

She said she was asked by a school board official to get the chief medical officer’s opinion about her children, who in turn told her to get letters from her children’s doctor.

The doctor examined her children and got them to answer a questionnaire. Lake said the doctor wrote a letter stating that her children were to be in an environment without cellphones. “If exposed, he has no doubt they’ll get ill again,” she said.

Using a meter, Lake took readings outside the school and found higher levels of electromagnetic radiation than should be present if cellphones were not active. However, she said levels were lower when she took readings recently, so something must have been done.

Lake said she’s concerned because her daughter will go to Wolfville School in two years and nothing has been done to prepare for that.

She said researchers have found radiation levels three times higher in schools with wireless Internet than the radiation levels coming directly from the beam of a cell tower. “They’re planning on installing a (wireless Internet) system at the (Gaspereau Elementary) school, but for who?” Lake said. “The children don’t have laptops requiring wireless Internet.”

Foolish not to take a closer look

Lake said she has told officials at the school that she wouldn’t be able to send her daughter there if wireless Internet is installed. She said we don’t know enough about the potential health ramifications of the proliferating technology and it has only been used in schools for a short time. Now, she says, there’s more research and information coming in and people would be foolish not to take a closer look at it. “Not everyone will get sick, but some will and some are,” Lake said. “Why should my children be denied a healthy place to go to school? I have medical documentation.”

Lake said she would raise her concerns over wireless Internet technology to Acadia University as well. She had a daughter attending Acadia and even though she got through the year, Lake is concerned that wireless Internet technology interfered with her daughter’s memory and concentration, two necessary components in a learning environment. “We will not be able to escape this if we don’t speak out,” she said. “This has to be taken more seriously.”