BC, Central Okanagan School District

Summary

Hello and welcome to the Central Okanagan School District C4ST profile page!

We wish to gather together as many people as we can to raise awareness and pressure the school board (and provincial and federal politicians) to:

• Raise awareness at the school board as to the hazardous effects of wifi
• Encourage the school board to direct the administration to ensure that schools use wired connections wherever possible, as well as airplane mode where wireless connections are not possible (and take whatever steps you might consider useful)
• Pressure the school board to adhere to the resolutions approved by a BC wide parents’ group in May, 2012, a province wide parents’ group in B.C. passed two resolutions: 1) for school districts to have one school at each education level that is free of wireless connections, cordless phones and cellular phones; 2) for school boards to stop installing wireless networks in schools where other technology is available
• Raise awareness that Safety Code 6 was never intended to apply to schools, does not consider the higher levels of risks that exist to children’s or pregnant women’s (teachers and others in the schools) health or the impact on unborn fetuses, and some of the other risks to the school board in placing such strong (misguided) reliance on Safety Code 6. It might be useful to provide specifics on why children are more vulnerable (eg thinner and smaller skulls, higher water content in their bodies, more rapidly dividing ceels, etc)
• Present the school board with some solid and well respected scientific evidence that is hard to ignore (to counter the messages they are getting that concerns arise only from “quack science”

Is Wi-Fi included in the IARC/WHO’s 2B classification of RF-EMF?

Yes. In May of 2011, the IARC (International Association for Research on Cancer) declared radio frequency radiation as a possible cause of cancer. CLICK HERE for official document. Since then Federal, provincial, and municipal health authorities in Canada have made the FALSE claim that the IARC declaration of RF as a possible human carcinogen refers ONLY to mobile phones. This is not and has never been the case. Wi-Fi and all EMF emitting devices are included in this grouping.

Why the confusion?

IARC does not classify devices, they classify exposures. The 2B designation therefore applies to all RF-EMF exposures, regardless of the source. It isn’t the physical source that is being evaluated; it’s the type of emission that exits from any source, that is being evaluated.

Confirmation from IARC

In this video clip (CLICK HERE) Dr. Jonathan M Samet, MD, University of Southern California, Chairman of the Working Group, states at the 3.12 minute mark “the designation of class 2B RF-EMFs is unspecified as to source, class 2B has broad applicability to sources that emit RMFs”.

Confirmation from Dr Robert A Baan PhD, Responsible Officer, Monograph 102 on RF-EMF, The IARC Monographs, IARC, Lyon, FRANCE

“many other devices emit the same type of RF radiation, e.g.,base-station antennas, radio/tv antennas, WiFi stations, smart meters, etc. Therefore, all these fall under the same broad evaluation of “Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields.” CLICK HERE to read.

Additional Information

Awareness at Kelowna city council of these issues also appears to be desperately lacking.

Kelowna has just reached a deal with Shaw to have free wifi in city parks. News reports state that the deal won’t cost the city anything and that “The required equipment will be located on lamp posts and power poles.” We aren’t sure but assume this means cell towers.

• Kelowna Becomes Latest Okanagan City to Offer Free Wifi
• Public city-wide Wi-Fi coming to Kelowna

Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country and certain other communities surround Lake Okanagan. We understand from the above reports that the plan to roll out wifi at parks includes rolling it out at several beaches, including (but not restricted to) the very popular Boyce-Gyro Beach. Given that water readily conducts this type of radiation, and also given the great numbers of children present on beaches in the summer, introducing this technology at public beaches is especially concerning.

We live in Kelowna, have a keen interest in these issues, and heard nothing about this until it was already decided. We are concerned that an initiative of this nature didn’t involve adequate prior notice or a sufficient opportunity for the public to submit their comments or concerns.

We assume that the fact that the arrangement with Shaw is non-exclusive could result in duplication (with, for example, a single park having 5 different providers all providing wifi services in the same park) and therefore significantly elevated exposure levels.

We would also like to see the Kelowna city council (and other local, provincial and federal politicians) pressured to reconsider this decision, and to educate them on the hidden costs of this step. We assume they are blissfully unaware that Toronto city council voted down a similar initiative – it might be useful to provide them with information about that. We would like to see other councils in the area have greater awareness of these issues, so that if/when they are approached, they won’t follow suit and approve such widespread wifi.