Tag Archives: effects of radiation on children

Bans on Cell Phones in Classroom Growing Worldwide

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Bans on Cell Phones in Classroom Growing Worldwide

November 9, 2019

by Kim Goldberg

An increasing number of cities, states and entire nations are banning student use of cell phones at school, with Israel being the most recent addition to the list.

On November 6, 2019, the Israeli Ministry of Education announced a ban on cell phone use in the nation’s elementary schools. Students will be required to leave their phones in their bags in class and during breaks.

In September 2019, the Canadian province of Ontario implemented a cell phone ban in classrooms province-wide.

In June 2019, the Australian state of Victoria announced a ban on cell phones in classrooms for both primary and secondary students. The ban takes effect in early 2020. “Students will be required to switch off their phones and store them securely in lockers from the start of the school day until the final bell. When emergencies occur, parents or guardians can reach their child by calling the school,” the statement from the government of Victoria said.

In 2018, Australia’s largest state, New South Wales, banned cell phones in primary schools.

Also in 2018, France banned school use of smartphones and other internet-connected devices such as tablets nationwide for all students between 3 and 15 years old. An earlier French law in 2010 had already banned the use of smartphones during all teaching activity, making France an early leader in recognizing the problem of cell phone use in schools. Additionally, France banned Wi-Fi in all nursery schools in 2015 in a law that also requires Wi-Fi to be turned off in elementary schools unless it is in use for teaching.

Beyond these cases of national and state lawmaking against school use of cell phones, a growing numbers of individual schools, school districts and teachers worldwide are establishing a “no cell phone” rule in the classroom. In most cases, the reason given for these bans is to curb student distraction and cyber-bullying, and to increase student focus and academic performance.

Wireless Radiation Turns Our Protons into Radio Transmitters

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By Kim Goldberg

May 21, 2014

RadiofrequencyToolkit_v4_06132013In 2013, the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control issued a 377-page report titled “Radiofrequency Toolkit for Environmental Health Practitioners.”

The entire document can be viewed and downloaded here.

The weighty tome appears to be primarily a government whitewash of the wireless industry, in an effort to allay legitimate public concern about the biotoxic nature of RF radiation from cell phones, cordless phones, wi-fi, and (most significantly to the BC government) smart meters.

The report drowns us in “science” designed to make any reader feel that if she can’t wade through dozens of mathematical equations using long strings of Greek letters, then she isn’t qualified to speak out about RF hazards.

The report trots out all the predictable faulty logic and false analogies such as telling us on page 25 that our own bodies are constantly emitting EMF in the 31,000 GHz range (i.e., our infra-red heat signature). So why worry about the lower frequencies of our wireless devices, seems to be the implied question/statement.

“MRI Scanner” courtesy of onlinedocturs, Flickr (CC BY)

“MRI Scanner” courtesy of onlinedocturs, Flickr (CC BY)

But then on page 31, something interesting pops up. While describing the purportedly benign Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines used in hospital radiology, the report tells us that “RF fields of 10-400 MHz [are used] to excite the protons in the body and cause them to emit radio waves for the acquisition of anatomical images.”

(For a more detailed description of this phenomenon of proton excitation by radio frequencies, see the British Medical Journal article on Magnetic Resonance Imaging.)

Thanks so much for making my case for me.

Yes, it can certainly be medically useful (at times) to have those MRI images. But the relevant take-away here is that our protons are perpetually being turned into RF transmitters by our daily exposure to wireless RF radiation from smart meters, cell phones, wi-fi, and more.

And that particular transformation of our bodies at a sub-atomic level is one that nobody signed on for and most people would reject if they knew it was happening to them.

Article © Kim Goldberg, 2014

 

Tyler Hoffmann – Colwood, BC

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By Kim Goldberg

August 15, 2013 

8-year-old Tyler Hoffmann (Photo by Janis Hoffmann)

8-year-old Tyler Hoffmann (Photo by Janis Hoffmann)

Eight-year-old Tyler Hoffmann has energy to burn. And his backyard trampoline, bike, basketball, and hockey stick each get a thorough workout on the afternoon I visit him at his grandmother’s home near Victoria, BC. 

But in April 2012, a different story was unfolding. Tyler began coming home from Sangster Elementary School in the Sooke School District with extreme headaches and fatigue. And he was having trouble sleeping at night. 

When asked to touch the part of his head that hurt, he would point to the top, his mother Lori recalls. But as the headaches grew worse over the next few weeks—to the point of nausea—Tyler was no longer able to touch the source of it, stating it was now in the middle of his head. 

Tyler Hoffmann (Photo © Kim Goldberg)

“After a few weeks of using Advil and Tylenol to alleviate the severe pain in Tyler’s head, we knew something was seriously wrong,” Lori says.   

The following month, she discovered what it was. 

“We accidently discovered, through another parent, that the school district had just finished installing commercial wi-fi networks throughout every school,” Lori explains. “This was done without informing parents. We were denied any opportunity for input,” she adds. 

Tyler’s pediatrician recommended that the school shut off the wi-fi router closest to Tyler’s classroom, so that Tyler could remain in school and complete Grade 2 with his friends. 

The school’s wi-fi routers, all active and transmitting day and night, were not being used at the time (and still aren’t) because there were no computers to connect them to. So the request from a doctor to turn off a single unused router seemed simple enough, Lori thought. The Sooke School District did not agree. 

School District usurps parental choice on wireless radiation

“The Assistant Superintendent told us that the router would not be turned off but would stay on 24/7 because they did not want to set a precedent,” Lori recalls. “I don’t have a cell phone, wireless router, cordless phone, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse or any other wireless devices in my home because I have made the choice of not exposing my children or myself to microwave radiation. The school district has now decided for me that Tyler will be exposed to it,” she says. 

Tyler Hoffmann - back to normal once removed from his wi-fi'ed school. (Photo © Kim Goldberg)

Tyler Hoffmann – back to normal once removed from his wi-fi’ed school. (Photo © Kim Goldberg)

Lori pulled Tyler out of school that same day rather than risk his health any further. And upon doing so, she was promptly informed by the school principal that Tyler’s teacher was under no obligation to give Tyler homework, marking, or evaluation so that he could complete Grade 2. 

“After we removed Tyler from school, his headaches and associated nausea completely stopped,” says Lori. 

In September 2012, his mother enrolled Tyler in an elementary school in the neighboring Victoria School District, where there would be no wi-fi router in his classroom.  

Free from the toxic effects of commercial wi-fi in the classroom, Tyler performed at the top of his math and reading classes at his new school.  

Tyler Hoffmann (Photo by Janis Hoffmann)

Tyler Hoffmann (Photo by Janis Hoffmann)

But transferring Tyler to an out-of-district school is, at best, a temporary solution, and does nothing to help the 8,500 other students in the Sooke School District. So Tyler’s family along with the Jeskes (another local family with electrosensitive children) have launched a legal challenge in an attempt to make Sooke School District classrooms safe for all children. Read their legal brief here.

The Hoffmann and Jeske families seek, at the very least, to bring the Sooke School District into compliance with the policies adopted in 2012 by the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils, which call for a moratorium on installation of further wi-fi in BC schools plus a minimum of one school at each level in each district to be free of wi-fi to accommodate electrosensitive students. 

“unlawful to experiment on children”

Tyler & his sister Julianna with both be attending schools in the Victoria School District to avoid wi-fi in classrooms. (Photo © Kim Goldberg)

Tyler & his sister Julianna will both be attending schools in the Victoria School District to avoid wi-fi in classrooms. (Photo © Kim Goldberg)

“It is unethical and unlawful to experiment on children,” says Tyler’s grandmother Janis Hoffmann. “Wi-fi is an unregulated technology that has not been tested for safety for children in schools,” she adds. “Parents have not been informed of the risks and have never been asked to sign a consent form. Ironically, the student field trips are explained in great detail, requiring parents to sign a permission slip before children are permitted to attend.” 

Tyler and his five-year-old sister Julianna will each attend school in the Victoria School District in September 2013 where they will not be exposed to wireless radiation from commercial wi-fi routers in their classrooms.

To donate to the legal fund for electrosensitive children sickened by wi-fi in schools, go here.

Text and images © Kim Goldberg 2013 (unless images are otherwise credited)

(Tyler Hoffmann’s story will be included in Kim Goldberg’s forthcoming book REFUGIUM: Wi-Fi Exiles and the Coming Electroplague, due out in 2014. Read more people’s stories here.)