Maple Ridge News by Robert Mangelsdorf mapleridgenews.com
Friday March 18, page 12
The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District needs guidence before it can decide what action to take, if any, about the possible ill health effects caused by radiation from the Wi-Fi base stations many schools use for wireless Internet. Trustee Stepan Vdovine said the district wasn’t qualified to make a judgement on its own, at last week’s school trustee meeting. “I firmly believe this is a concern that has to be resolved by the level of government that has jurisdiction and level of expertise {to do so},” Vdovine said.
“We have to work with those levels of government to find solutions to any problems we might have at a local level.” A group of parents reiterated concerns that their children were being subjected to harmful levels of radiation by sitting close to the wireless routers while at school.
However, Health Canada has stated there are no adverse risks associated with low amount of radio waves emitted by Wi-Fi base stations. The campaign is being spear-headed by Maple Ridge mother and naturopathic doctor samantha Boutet. She presented trustees with a letter asking the district to form a commitee made up of parents with “no ties to the telecommunications industry and no ties to the school board,” to examine the issue.
She repeated her request for the district to make at least one school at the elementary and secondary level to be free of wireless internet fo students who may be sensititve. “This is an emerging concern – a parent concern – so we should try to represent those concerns and document them as best we can and seek guidence,” said trustee Susan Carr.
