Wireless and Children: Precautionary Action

Wireless and Children
Environmental Health Trust

Wireless Health Risks: The IPAD

Children more Vulnerable to Wireless Radiation. IPADS and wireless devices are microwave transmitters. Children’s nervous systems and immune systems are developing at a rapid rate and can be profoundly affected by environmental toxins. This radiation impacts brain maturation in research studies. Parents can take steps to minimize exposures on their children.

Take Action to Protect Your Child:  Turn the Device on Airplane Mode with WIFI Off.

Several Countries are taking Precautionary Action to Minimize Microwave Exposures on Children

France: New Legislation and French National Agency for Health, Food and Environmental Safety (ANSES)

· 2013 The French National Assembly passed an amendment banning WiFi from nursery Schools and strongly discouraging Wi-Fi in their schools until its proven“safe for human consumption.”
· 2013 ANSES recommends hands free kits for phones, radiation exposure labeling, and “limiting the population’s exposure to radiofrequencies… especially for children and intensive users, and controlling the overall exposure that results from relay antennas.”

Belgium: Federal Public Health Regulations on March 2014 due to Health Concerns

· Phones designed for children under 7 years old are prohibited from sale.
· Total Advertising Ban on cell phones aimed at children younger than 14.
· Mandatory Radiation SAR levels must be available for Consumers

Israel: The Israeli Ministry Of Education has issued guidelines limiting WiFi and Cell phone use in schools.

· Pre-schools and kindergartens have banned the use of wireless networks
· A hard wired direct cable connection is recommended and according to recent reports schools are in the process of converting their wireless infrastructure to cable connections.
· The Israeli Supreme Court ordered the Israeli Government to investigate the number of children currently suffering From EHS.
· In second and third grade classes use of the internet is restricted to one hour per day.
· The Education Ministry has instructed all schools to perform radiation tests.
· Israel’s Minister of Health Rabi Litzman stated that he supports calls a ban on Wi-Fi in schools.

Australia: In 2013 the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency issued Fact Sheet 14: titled How to Reduce exposure from mobile phones and other wireless devices.

· Reduce the risk from WiFi devices by “keeping them at a distance, for example placing the wireless router away from where people spend time”, and “reducing the amount of time you use them”.
· “ARPANSA recommends that parents encourage their children to limit their exposure.”

Finland: The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority issued recommendations for children which include: favoring text messages, parents limiting duration and amount of calls,the use of hands free devices, avoiding calls in a low reception area and keeping the phone away from the body.

· “With children, we have reason to be especially careful, because there is not enough research on children’s mobile phone use. Unfortunately, it will not be easy to obtain this information in the future, either, because of ethical considerations, the use of children as research subjects must always be heavily justified”, according to STUK research director Sisko Salomaa.

Switzerland: The Governing Council of Thurgau Canton 2008 “The Governing Council recommends for schools to forgo the use of wireless networks when the structural makeup of a given school building allows for a wired network.“

Germany: The German Federal Ministry for Radiation Protection states,”supplementary precautionary measures such as wired cable alternatives are to be preferred to the WLAN system.”

· Bavaria:The State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs: “For precautionary reasons the Federal Office for Radiation Protection recommends for schools that if a wireless network is used to place its components in suitable locations and to prefer the use of wired network solutions whenever possible.” In 2007 Parliament recommendation to all schools to not install wireless LAN networks.
· Frankfurt: “In Frankfurt’s schools there will be no wireless networks in the short or mid term. The Local Education Authority did not wish to conduct a “large scale human experiment,” said Michael Damian, spokesperson of the Head of the School Department Jutta Ebeling.

Austria: ”The official advice of the Public Health Department of the Salzburg Regionis not to use WLAN and DECT in Schools or Kindergartens.” -Gerd Oberfeld, MD.

· The Austrian Medical Society has issues cell phone safety guidelines stating that cell phones should be used for as short of a time as possible and that children under 16 should not use cell phones at all. The state that wireless LAN leads to high microwave exposure.

United Kingdom: The UK National Health Service has specific Recommendationsfor children and cell phones as “children are thought to be at higher risk of health implications”.

· “Children should only use mobile phones for essential purposes and keep all calls short. “
· For the public they have “recommendations to help lower any potential long-term risks” which include keeping calls short, keep phone away from the body on standby mode, only use it when the reception is strong and use a phone with an external antenna.

India: 2012 The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology issuedEMF guidelines with new Exposure Limits lowered to 1/10 of the ICNIRP level, SAR labeling on phones.

· Official guidelines for cell phone use include: Headsets, Speakerphones, limiting cell use, increasing distance from devices, and choosing landlines.
· 2013: Supreme Court of India upholds a decision of the High Court of the State of Rajasthan to remove all cell towers from the vicinity of schools, colleges, hospitals and playgrounds because of radiation “hazardous to life.”
· The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has a webpageentitled “ A Journey for EMF” detailing guidelines and current issues with wireless devices and cell towers.

Italy: The Italian Supreme Court ruled a man’s brain tumor was caused by his cell phone use in 2012. The National Institute for Workmen’s Compensation must compensate a worker with head tumor due to cell use.

Russia: The Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection has repeatedly warned about electromagnetic radiation impacts on children and recommended WiFi not be used in schools.

· “Thus, for the first time in the human history, children using mobile telecommunications along with the adult population are included into the health risk group due to the RF EMF exposure.”
· “In children, the amount of so-called stem cells is larger than in adults and the stem cells were shown to be the most sensitive to RF EMF exposure.”
· “It is reasonable to set limits on mobile telecommunications use by children and adolescents, including ban on all types of advertisement of mobile telecommunications for children.”
· Decision of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection2008, “CHILDREN AND MOBILE PHONES: THE HEALTH OF THE FOLLOWING GENERATIONS IS IN DANGER.”

Canada: Health Canada offers “Practical Advice” on reducing exposure to wireless radiation.

· Recommendations: 1. Limit the length of cell phone calls, 2. Replace cell phone calls with text, use “hands-free” devices and 3. Encourage children under the age of 18 to limit their cell phone usage
· “Health Canada reminds cell phone users that they can take practical measures to reduce RF exposure. The department encourages parents to reduce their children’s RF exposure from cell phones since children are typically more sensitive to a variety of environmental agents…There is a lack of scientific information regarding the potential health impacts of cell phones on children.”

European Environment Agency: “All reasonable measures to be taken to reduce exposures to electromagnetic fields, especially radiofrequencies from mobile phones and particularly the exposures to children and young adults. Current exposure limits to be reconsidered.”

The European Environment Agency Report “Late Lessons from Early Warnings, Volume II” 2013 Report details the accumulating science on radio frequency radiation, the significant risks of waiting and critical need to take precautionary action to reduce exposures to avoid widespread harm.

Resolution 1815: In 2011 The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe issued The Potential Dangers of Electromagnetic Fields and Their Effect on the Environment.

A call to European governments to “take all reasonable measures” to reduce exposure to electromagnetic fields “particularly the exposure to children and young people who seem to be most at risk from head tumours.”

The Resolution calls for member states to:

· Implement “information campaigns about the risk of biological effects on the environment and human health, especially targeting children and young people of reproductive age. “

· “Reconsider the scientific basis for the present standards on exposure to electromagnetic fields set by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection, which have serious limitations, and apply ALARA principles, covering both thermal effects and the athermic or biological effects of electromagnetic emissions or radiation.”

“For children in general, and particularly in schools and classrooms, give preference to wired Internet connections, and strictly regulate the use of mobile phones by schoolchildren on school premises.”

These countries are taking a precautionary stance.

More research is needed to understand what the long term health consequences of daily low level microwave radiation.

Our children are at risk and we need the facts:
Just how much radiation does a child’s brain absorb?
Support groundbreaking research to get the facts on radiation and children.

EHT is supporting groundbreaking research to understand absorption in one, two and three year old children.

What we know:

· Cell phones and wireless devices operate by emitting microwave radiation
· Children are particularly vulnerable due to thinner skulls and higher fluid in their brain.
· Comparably, children absorb more radiation than adults

Wireless radiation impacts brain development

What we need:

We need to purchase updated software for our computer assisted evaluation of anatomically based models of young children to produce three dimensional images of how far radiation gets into the young brain.   Please help us raise $20,000 to complete this critically important study being conducted by EHT teams working in Brazil with some of that nation’s most distinguished researchers.

http://ehtrust.org/wireless-and-children-2/