Dr. Weeks’s Comment: Science is nothing but a methodology. Science is not invested in outcomes, only the process – the scientific process is reproducible and offers consistently accurate and verifiable knowledge about our material world. The scientists, however, are trusted to act… well… scientifically and sadly that is often where the promise of science fails – when scientists become biased, corrupt shills – nothing more than pawns of the marking arm of industry. When one reads debates between “scientists”, look for ad hominem attacks – the attacker is the shill, as science has been abandoned.
“…France has banned wi-fi from childcare centres, while Israel does not allow it in preschools and kindergartens. Germany has advised its citizens to keep their exposure to radiation from wi-fi as low as possible…”
Baby monitor health warning: Devices may emit harmful radiation
- HERALD SUN
- DECEMBER 04, 2014
Brisbane-based author and researcher Donna Fisher called for a ban on the baby monitors.
THEY’VE been a saviour for many parents, but there are concerns wireless baby monitors could be dangerous.
Brisbane-based author and researcher Donna Fisher called for a ban on the baby monitors, worried the radiation they emit could be harmful to children. Ms Fisher drew on a World Health Organisation ruling that radiation emitted from the monitors was “possibly carcinogenic”.
Ms Fisher also said the radiation from the devices had the potential to cause reproductive problems, chronic fatigue, sleep disorders and other health problems.
But the director of the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research, Rodney Croft, said the WHO classification was ambiguous due to conflicting research.
Professor Croft said the dangers of wireless monitors were “extremely small” with the devices emitting radiation at similar levels to mobile phones and 100 times less than a level considered dangerous.
“Given it is quite a low level of exposure people are getting, it tends to give us a fair bit of confidence that it is unlikely that there will be a problem.”
Professor Croft said the call to ban the devices was a knee-jerk reaction.
Ms Fisher, a lecturer on the effects of electricity and light on the human body, has this week released a book calling for wireless baby monitors and wi-fi in schools and childcare centres to be banned.
“Australians are unwittingly exposing their children to EMFs, without the realisation or understanding of the long term impact this can have on future development,” Ms Fisher said.
Originally published as Are baby monitors bad for your child?
Medical experts dispute SIDS, autism link to wi-fi baby monitors
- AAP
- DECEMBER 08, 2014
New look at an old gadget
Hacker hijacks baby monitor
MEDICAL experts have slammed an Australian author for linking wireless baby monitors to autism and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
“The claims made in this book would be laughable, if they weren’t so irresponsible,” Telethon Kids Institute head of autism research Professor Andrew Whitehouse said.
“This is fearmongering at best, and unethical at worst.”
Brisbane author Donna Fisher is calling for the removal of wireless baby monitors from Australian retail shelves because she believes they emit dangerous radiation.
WARNING: Monitors ”˜may be harmful’
In her new book, Light That Heals, she claims electromagnetic fields generated by wireless technology have the potential to cause cancer, reproductive problems, chronic fatigue and more.
She is also concerned the exposure can increase the risk of SIDS and is a contributing factor in the rise in autism.
“Devices such as wireless baby monitors can actually do more harm than good by creating developmental issues in our youngest generation of Australians,” she said.
But autism expert Prof Whitehouse says there was no evidence to suggest a link between the use of wireless baby monitors and autism, a lifelong developmental disorder.
“It is not clear to me that the author understands the harmful effects these completely unsupported claims have on the autism community,” he said.
Jill Green, from SIDS and Kids, says no research papers in the organisation’s extensive library catalogue link the use of wireless baby monitors with SIDS.
But Professor Olle Johansson, of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, defended Fisher’s work, saying that exposure to the radiation emitted by wireless baby monitors and similar gadgets posed real risks.
“We know that exposure to this radiation may impact DNA, leading to possible cancer risks,” he said.
“It can alter our immune defence, and also affects male and female germ cells and fertility.” Some countries are choosing to err on the side of caution with wi-fi until more is known.
France has banned wi-fi from childcare centres, while Israel does not allow it in preschools and kindergartens.
Germany has advised its citizens to keep their exposure to radiation from wi-fi as low as possible.
The Australian government agency for radiation protection says there is no evidence that exposure to electrical fields is a health hazard.
But whether exposure to magnetic fields is equally harmless remains a more open question, it says.
Monitor facts
* Monitors are not recommended for normal healthy babies
* Some manufacturers of home monitors make false claims that they prevent SIDS
* Monitors should only be used under the supervision of a doctor or nurse
(Source: SIDS and Kids)
Originally published as Baby monitor health alert ”˜irresponsible’