No wi-fi for our schools or town

No wi-fi for our schools or town

Carmarthen Journal

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

IN his letter of October 10, A S Fitzgerald raised the potential health issues about the proposed wi-fi town centre application.

The people of Carmarthen should be aware that in 2011 the Council of Europe stated that the use of wi-fi should be avoided in schools.

Indeed, one committee voted unanimously that wi-fi should be banned in every school in Europe.

This was in response to looking at the scientific evidence.

In the same year, the World Health Organisation classified the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields from such microwave technologies to be possibly carcinogenic (that is causing cancer).

Medicines often have their licence removed when there is just one scientific study causing concern, yet there are several thousand peer- reviewed studies which indicate biological effects.

We should remember how asbestos was once considered to be harmless. Tobacco is another example — have we not learned these lessons from the past?

One of the first towns to put wi-fi in their town centre was Glastonbury in 2008. The council recently voted to remove it.

Children are particularly vulnerable to accumulating biological damage from such emissions and one aspect of this is their longer lifetime exposure.

There should be choice — wi-fi should not be in schools or town centres.

J Davies

Llandovery