Know-it-all knows nothing re. WiFi, EMF, EMR. Please respond.

> Don't worry, Toronto: WI-FI won't kill you
> National Post
> Fri 07 Apr 2006
> Page: A20
> Section: Issues & Ideas
> Byline: Michael Fumento
>
> Remember when microwave ovens caused cancer? Maybe that's before your
> time; but what about when power lines and electric blankets caused
> cancer, and computer terminals caused miscarriages and birth defects?
>
> Then, of course, cellphones caused brain tumours. And now, predictably
> enough, "WiFi" network signals that allow laptop computers to connect
> to the Internet wirelessly have also become suspect.
>
> All of these scares have two things in common. First, they involve
> invisible electromagnetic frequency (EMF) transmissions, something
> many of us find to be spooky -- like invisible creatures in movies.
> Second, they're all bogus: The angst these scares have caused has been
> entirely baseless.
>
> WiFi (short for "wireless fidelity") is used in many ways. It's
> ubiquitous in coffee shops and is used in homes like mine to remotely
> connect several computers. But whole municipalities, with Philadelphia
> the biggest and probably soon to be followed by San Francisco, have
> begun blanketing large areas with transmitters. Anybody there will be
> able to just boot up and check e-mail or surf the Net.
>
> But that's where the problem lies, say some.
> No sooner had Toronto Hydro Telecom announced plans in March to
> convert Canada's largest city into a giant WiFi "hotspot" by the end
> of the year, than cries of doom arose. "Why should we all become
> guinea pigs?" a letter to the Toronto Star demanded.
>
> David Fancy, head of the SWEEP Initiative (Safe Wireless Electrical
> and Electromagnetic Policies), agrees. "I have never seen any actual
> peer-reviewed science, epidemiological studies done with human
> subjects over an extensive period of time, that suggests this is
> actually safe," he told Toronto's Metro. That could be because Fancy
> is a dramatic arts professor, and thus may know lots about drama (and
> melodrama), but little about science and EMF. Those who understand it,
> conversely, will tell you otherwise.
>
> "Health Canada has assessed the ability of radio frequency fields to
> cause DNA damage and affect gene expression in human-derived brain
> cell cultures in four studies since 2000," says spokesman Paul
> Duchesne. "No negative effect was seen." He adds: "From all the
> studies we've seen, including those of the World Health Organization,
> nothing negative has been scientifically proven."
>
> Duchesne notes that WiFi transmitters are little more than radio
> towers, and in the same category as garage door openers, cordless
> phones, baby monitors.
>
> It seems the prime fount of the Toronto fear may be another ersatz EMF
> expert, President Fred Gilbert of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay,
> Ont. Previously, he was a zoology professor. That might come in handy
> in dealing with the occupants of rowdy fraternities, but isn't a good
> background for understanding radio frequencies.
>
> Over the protests of his students, Gilbert has refused to allow
> campus-wide WiFi coverage, telling IT Business Canada, "While the
> jury's out on this one, I'm not going to put in place what is
> potential chronic exposure for our students."
>
> So "chronic exposure" is inherently suspect -- as in chronic exposure
> to oxygen or to nutrition?
> Gilbert said his decision was based on a series of studies done for
> the California Department of Health Services and California Public
> Utilities Commission, examining EMF such as that generated by power
> lines or building wiring. But none of these studies found conclusive
> links to cancer, as Gilbert fears.
>
> Rather, a key source of Gilbert's information, according to the
> publication Wi-Fi Planet, is Cindy Sage of Sage EMF Design in Santa
> Barbara, Calif. (She has praised his decision in a letter to the Globe
> and Mail.)
>
> Not an unbiased source, Sage makes a living by detecting and then
> remediating "harmful" electromagnetic exposures. She has written and
> self-published a book, which encourages people into using her
> services. She was also a respondent to the San Francisco's request for
> comments on its proposed citywide WiFi network and (surprise!) advised
> against it.
>
> Science be damned, Sage's Globe letter claimed radio frequency can
> cause "DNA breaks and chromosome aberrations, cell death including
> death of brain cells (neurons), increased free radical production,
> cell stress and premature aging, changes in brain function including
> memory loss, retarded learning, slower promotion in school and slower
> motor function and other performance impairment in children, headaches
> and fatigue, sleep disorders, neurodegenerative conditions, reduction
> in melatonin secretion and cancer."
>
> Whew! It was probably only an oversight that she didn't include
> lycanthropy.
> In short, Gilbert is relying on someone who makes claims unsupported
> by evidence, and he lacks the ability to compare WiFi to its nearest
> neighbour, the radio. But then, so does Warren Bell, a board member of
> the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
>
> In an interview for a bizarre article in Toronto's NOW magazine, he
> said WiFi wouldn't be the first time industrialized society has
> embarked on something that works well in the lab but not so well in
> the real world. As a result, he said, "we've got ourselves in a number
> of different corners, something we have subsequently come to regret."
>
> Not the real world? Hello? The first radio broadcast was exactly a
> century ago. Remember those big wooden boxes that used to pump out
> Benny Goodman and Guy Lombardo? Me neither; before my time. But that's
> what we're talking about. If Benny Goodman didn't hurt your parents,
> WiFi won't hurt you.
>
> In fact, in 2003, Fredericton became the first Canadian city to
> blanket its downtown with WiFi, and nobody has yet turned into a
> zombie or had his head explode. But Fredericton offers its WiFi for
> free, which has a tendency to dampen dissent. The nation as a whole
> has over 1,400 WiFi hotspots, while the United States has about
> 48,000, yet no epidemic related to Cindy Sage's parade of horribles
> appears to have broken out.
>
> Still, one Toronto writer made an interesting suggestion. "If the
> health officials [go along with the fears] they will have to order the
> switching off of all radios, mobile phones, garage doors, microwave
> transmitters, ground all aircraft and return Toronto to the Middle
> Ages."
>
> Neat! A giant outdoor medieval museum just north of the U.S. border!
> But I'll bet those darned obstinate Canucks will refuse to go along.
>