[LINK] Mast debaters strike again

[Ivan Trundle]

(you have to hand it to El Reg, they know how to craft their  
headlines sometimes)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/25/wi-fi_health_concerns/

Mast debaters strike again, ban Wi-Fi in UK schools

Sensitive tissue

By Guy Kewney, NewsWireless.Net

Published Saturday 25th November 2006 18:25 GMT

Two new and baleful reports about "microwave radiation" revived the  
mast hysteria in the UK this week: one, an attempt by "3" to build a  
new phone tower and the other, a series of schools claiming ill  
effects from Wi-Fi.

By coincidence, both reports were written by journalists with the  
same surname. Joanna Bale wrote in The Times about schools in Ysgol  
Pantycelyn, Carmarthenshire, Chichester and Buckinghamshire which  
have dismantled Wi-Fi networks, while David Bale produced a report in  
the Norwich Evening News about a campaign to halt a "3" 3G phone mast.

Both reports have quoted "scientists" - and in both cases, it seems  
the source for this, is the mysterious comment by Professor Sir  
William Stewart, who headed a Health Protection Agency investigation  
into microwave and health.

Sir William has never explained his original comments, which he made  
personally at the press conference announcing the HPA report, and in  
which he disagreed with the findings of the report itself. Staff at  
the HPA have told NewsWireless that "we don't know what he based his  
comment on, and we're not in a position to ask him to elaborate."

Today's story in The Times, if validated, offers real evidence of  
objective health damage caused by wireless. "Stowe School, the  
Buckinghamshire public school, also removed part of its wireless  
network after a teacher became ill. Michael Bevington, a classics  
teacher for 28 years at the school, said that he had such a violent  
reaction to the network that he was too ill to teach," wrote Joanna  
Bale.

Bevington describes symptoms which have not previously been assigned  
to wireless reponse:

"I felt a steadily widening range of unpleasant effects whenever I  
was in the classroom. First came a thick headache, then pains  
throughout the body, sudden flushes, pressure behind the eyes, sudden  
skin pains and burning sensations, along with bouts of nausea. Over  
the weekend, away from the classroom, I felt completely normal.

Investigators for a medical journal have attempted to test for  
general ill-health associated with wireless. They said that their  
test subjects, who complained of acute sensitivity to microwaves,  
were unable to tell whether the wireless was actually switched on or  
not.

If Bevington's symptoms can be replicated and shown to be definitely  
wireless related, this could be the breakthrough which researchers  
have been seeking - without results - for years. All other clinical  
trials so far have found "no link" between ill health and wireless.

There is a theoretical link between DNA damage and microwave, the  
reality of which is still unproven despite considerable research.  
Nobody has suggested that DNA damage could produce symptoms such as  
those reported by Bevington, however.