From Digital Media to Digital Dementia

A recent article in a Swiss newspaper on e-courses shows
children using laptops on their laps, exposing sensitive
parts of their bodies to electromagnetic radiation.

Experts warn that digital media is detrimental to learning and can cause insomnia, depression, addiction, and many physical illnesses concerning the cardiovascular system, the musculoskeletal system (lack of exercise, incorrect sitting posture), up to dementia.  Switzerland is moving towards providing school children with tablets and organizing courses on digital media for parents, children and educators, with little mention of health risks.

The too frequent use of digital media reduces the mental capacity of our children
by Dr Rudolf Hänsel, qualified psychologist, Lindau/Germany, Current Concerns, no. 46,

5 November 2012 (www.currentconcerns.ch)

Psychiatrist and brain researcher Manfred Spitzer warns parents and educators

The neuroscientist and medical director of the Psychiatric University Hospital Ulm, Professor Manfred Spitzer, met with intense press coverage about his new best-seller “Digitale Demenz. Wie wir uns und unsere Kinder um den Verstand bringen” (Digital dementia. How we drive us and our children mad) and his trenchant theses. Referring to many neurological findings and supplementing new findings Spitzer reinforces in his book previous research of reputable media experts saying that the too frequent use of the Internet can make people dumb. He never denigrated juvenile and adult Internet users however. Reacting to the spiteful attacks by the press, he said in an interview: “I do not pathologize but I state: Where there are effects there are also risks and side effects.”1 However, Spitzer does not just express warnings; he also shows what parents, teachers and politicians can do to protect our youth.

Treat the Earth and All That Dwell Thereon with Respect

Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect.

Remain close to the Great Spirit.

Show great respect for your fellow beings.

Work together for the benefit of all Mankind.

Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.

Do what you know to be right.

Look after the well being of mind and body.

Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.

Be truthful and honest at all times.

Take full responsibility for your actions.

Let us greet the dawn of a new day

when all can live as one with nature

and peace reigns everywhere.

from the Native Commandments - 

Jasper Saunkeah, Cherokee

 

Switzerland: Is Wi-Fi in Schools Making Children Sick?

Is Wi-Fi in schools making children sick?
by Hannes von Wyl, 20min.ch, 21 November 2013  (Translated from German by Google and the Editor of this blog)

From 2015, elementary school students will already be working with mobile phones and tablets - over WLAN (Wi-Fi)  connected to the Internet. Critics warn of health problems and even leukemia and tumors.

(Photo: Tablets and mobile phones in the classroom: from 2015/16 this should be the standard. Because the devices can only be connected wirelessly to the Internet, the schools will be equipped with Wi-Fi. According to critics, irradiation from the radio waves results in lack of concentration and more cases of ADHD and cancer.)

According to Curriculum 21, which should be implemented in all German-speaking schools in Switzerland from the school year 2015/2016, children will learn how to use new media technologies in kindergarten and in primary school. Due to the proliferation of tablets and smartphones, not only computers and notebooks, but also "small mobile devices", will be taken into account.

"Children are especially sensitive"

Swiss Re on "Unforeseen Consequences of Electromagnetic Fields"

Excerpt from recent Swiss Re document on the unforeseen consequences of electromagnetic fields (page 11).  (Swiss Re is one of the world's largest reinsurance companies.)

Swiss Re Sonar – Emerging Risk Insights
July 2013

Unforeseen consequences of electromagnetic fields

(high risk - more than 10 years)


The ubiquity of electromagnetic fields (EMF) raises concerns about potential implications for human health, in particular with regard to the use of mobile phones, power lines or antennas for broadcasting. Over the last decade, the spread of wireless devices has accelerated enormously. The convergence of mobile phones with computer technology has led to the proliferation of new and emerging technologies.  This development has increased exposure to electromagnetic fields, the health impacts of which remain unknown.

Anxiety over the potential risks related to EMF has risen. Studies are difficult to conduct, since time trend studies are inconsistent due to the still rather recent proliferation of wireless technology. The WHO has classified extremely low-frequency magnetic fields and radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, such as radition emitted by cell phones, as potentially carcinogenic to humans (Class 2B carcinogen). Furthermore, a recent ruling by an Italian court suggested a link between mobile phone radiation and human health impairment. Overall, however, scientific studies are still inconclusive regarding possible adverse health effects of EMF.

If a direct link between EMF and human health problems were established, it would open doors for new claims and could ultimately lead to large losses under product liability covers. Liability rates would likely rise.

http://files.newsnetz.ch/upload/3/0/30072.pdf

Interview with the Author of « Big Pharma, An All-powerful Industry that Toys with Our Health »

I am currently reading "Big Pharma", a very revealing book about the ways in which the pharmaceutical industry is toying with our health.  The Nouvel Observateur interviewed the author, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, on the parts of the book about the drug "misinformation" on the Internet and environmental pollution of medications. (The book is not yet available in English.)

"For information on health, the Internet is completely unreliable"
by Anne Crignon , Nouvel Observateur , 29 September 2013 (translated from French by the Editor of this blog)

Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen publishes "Big Pharma". Interview.


Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, 20 July, at his home in Paris, the day he finished "Big Pharma". Born in 1951 of Danish parents, MIKKEL BORCH-JACOBSEN grew up in Strasbourg and studied philosophy in France, where he defended his doctoral thesis before a jury which included Derrida, Levinas and Lacoue-Labarthe. He left for the United States in 1986, where he currently teaches literature at the University of Washington in Seattle.

In "Big Pharma", Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen… has asked a group of Anglo-Saxon authors to refine his study of a milieu that he has been scrutinizing for the past ten years: the pharmaceutical industry.

BibliObs: There is a debate in France. Some believe that we are now in an era of medical misinformation or manipulation by prescribers, scientific knowledge being "in the hands of” drug manufacturers; and those who complain are often perceived as Manichaean accusers. Has medical knowledge been corrupted?

French Documentary Reveals How the Mobile Industry Manufactures Doubt

“[Electrosmog] will probably be the next big public health scandal because everyone is exposed. It is important that each user takes precautions to be taught to young people to use these technologies with sense.”

French Documentary Film Reveals How the Mobile Industry Manufactures DoubtPosted by SkyVision Solutions,

12 November 2013

With their documentary “Ondes, Science et Manigances” [or "Waves, Science and Shenanigans (Intrigue)"], the journalist Nancy Meritens and film director Jean Hèches show how the mobile industry creates doubt about harmful radiofrequency waves.

Faced with the construction of a telephone relay antenna in front of their homes and anxious to know if they were at risk for their health, these two people have traveled Europe to understand the environmental issues presented by this technology.

Through interviews with several whistleblowers, including citizens, journalists, and scientists, this film reveals how, like the tobacco industry, the lobby of the mobile phone industry has built a strategy of “product defense” by artificially creating a scientific doubt about the harmful effects of electromagnetic waves.

Electrosensitivity Finally Recognized as a Disease?

Electrosensitivity finally recognized as a disease ?
by Philippe Samzun, lanouvellerepublique.fr, 5 November 2013 (translated from French by the Editor of this blog)

Electrosensitive for more than 10 years, a person from the Touraine region has just been acknowledged as a disabled worker. Testimony.

A graphics designer in Tours, Véronika has just been acknowledged as a disabled worker by the Departmental Home for Handicapped Persons (MDPH) because of her electrosensitivity. “A first in Indre-et-Loire and without doubt in the Central Region,” says Emmanual Denis, departmental delegate for the association Robin des Toits.

Aged 56, this person from the Touraine region has been able to avail herself of a medical certificate dating from last April, issued by a physician in Nantes, specialized in professional and environmental pathologies.

An impaired social and professional life

Dr. Dominique Dupas indicates that Véronika “presents a clinical picture wholly characteristic of an idiopathic environmental intolerance to electromagnetic fields.” He adds that this condition, which belongs to the group of medically unexplained diseases, is very disabling for social and professional life. “Patients with this condition present difficulties of access to or keeping a job such that they justify in my view the attribution of handicapped worker,” concludes the physician.