Switzerland: Teachers Vote to Keep Wi-Fi Out of School

Teachers at the Blaise-Cendrars High School in La Chaux-de-Fonds, have all recently decided that there will be no wi-fi, neither in the cafeteria nor in classrooms as a precautionary approach to everyone’s health. “In the beginning, we had selected installation of a wireless network for the sake of educational convenience”, explains Patrick Herrmann, Director of the establishment. “We wanted to allow teachers and students to work on tablets and other computers in the cafeteria and in classrooms. The work had already begun.”

What is there to be afraid of?

It was seeing an installer working on the site that a certain number of teachers reacted and asked for the opening of a discussion on the subject of reverting to wi-fi. “There was an impassioned debate between partisans and opponents. We proposed that each side prepare arguments.” After these were distributed before the teachers’ meeting, the latter were called to vote their preference. “The adversaries of wi-fi were in the majority. Worth mentioning is that there was a large number of abstentions.”

On what basis did the opposition develop their anti-wi-fi argument? “On certain scientific research as well as policy developments,” replies Patrick Hermann. “To be brief, at the scientific level, apparently, waves from wi-fi are of the micro-wave type. And even if their intensity is relatively low, their impact is significant. Waves penetrate several centimeters into the human body.”

He adds that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of WHO has classified electromagnetic radiofrequency fields as possibly carcinogenic for humans, on the basis of an increased risk of glioma, a type of malignant brain cancer, associated with use of mobile phones.

« Last May 30th, the Council of Europe recommended banning wi-fi and mobile phones in schools. The National Library of France has renounced a wireless network. In France, the National Assembly has voted a text asking that wi-fi be used as little as possible in schools”, says the Director of the Blaise-Cendrars High School.

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