Tuesday, December 3, 2013

9th Grade Science Project Finds Plants Don’t Grow Near Wi-Fi


Researchers from both England, the Netherlands and Sweden have shown great interest in the five girls' biology experiments. Photo: The girls from 9.b

Five ninth-grade young women from Denmark recently created a science experiment that is causing a stir in the scientific community. They found that when garden cress seeds are placed near Wi-Fi, they simply will not grow.
Wi-Fi connects electronic devices to wireless computer networks (wireless LAN) using electromagnetic radiation. They’re installed in homes, schools, offices, stores, hotels, coffee shops, airports, libraries, hospitals, public buildings and even entire sections of cities. Wi-Fi signals are, unlike TV and radio signals, strong enough to penetrate concrete walls. Many health experts consider Wi-Fi radiation to be extremely dangerous to long-term health.
Based on the existing science, many public health experts believe it is possible we will face an epidemic of cancers in the future resulting from uncontrolled use of cell phones and increased population exposure to WiFi and other wireless devices. Thus it is important that all of us, and especially children, restrict our use of cell phones, limit exposure to background levels of Wi-Fi, and that government and industry discover ways in which to allow use of wireless devices without such elevated risk of serious disease. We need to educate decision-makers that ‘business as usual’ is unacceptable. The importance of this public health issue can not be underestimated,” said Dr. David Carpenter, Dean at the School of Public Health, State University of New York.
Since Wi-Fi is so recent, no studies have yet been done on the long-term health effects of Wi-Fi. However, thousands of studies have been done on the health effects of mobile phones and mobile phone masts. These studies have found that mobile phone radiation can cause cancer!

The Experiment

It started with an observation and a question. The girls noticed that if they slept with their mobile phones near their heads at night, they often had difficulty concentrating at school the next day. They wanted to test the effect of a cellphone’s radiation on humans, but their school, Hjallerup School in Denmark, did not have the equipment to handle such an experiment. So the girls designed an experiment that would test the effect of cellphone radiation on a plant instead.


The students placed six trays filled with Lepidium sativum, a type of garden cress into a room without radiation, and six trays of the seeds into another room next to two routers that according to the girls calculations, emitted about the same type of radiation as an ordinary cellphone.
Over the next 12 days, the girls observed, measured, weighed and photographed their results. Although by the end of the experiment the results were blatantly obvious — the cress seeds placed near the router had not grown. Many of them were completely dead. While the cress seeds planted in the other room, away from the routers, thrived.

The experiment earned the girls (pictured below) top honors in a regional science competition and the interest of scientists around the world.

According to Kim Horsevad, a teacher at Hjallerup Skole in Denmark where the cress experiment took place, a neuroscience professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, is interested in repeating the
experiment in controlled professional scientific environments.
Wi-Fi radiation penetrates the body, affects cell membranes and over time cells to lose their ability to function properly. It disturbs the body’s natural energy field causing stress, fatigue and a weakened immune system. It can also cause headaches, concentration problems, dizziness, anxiety, memory loss, depression, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rates, seizures, epilepsy, nausea, skin rashes, insomnia, ringing ears, high blood pressure, brain damage, autism, diabetes, fibromyalgia, infertility, birth defects, DNA damage, leukemia, cancer, etc.http://safespaceprotection.com/harmful-effects-electromagnetic-fields.aspx
Children are especially vulnerable to Wi-Fi radiation signals because their nervous systems and brains are still developing. Their skulls are thinner and smaller, so the radiation penetrates their brains more deeply. Many schools are now using Wi-Fi but this is negatively affecting the learning abilities of children!
http://safeschool.ca/Home.html_script_src__http_.html
In the real world, true evidence of safety is the healthy functioning of the most vulnerable — pregnant women and children — when they are intentionally, unavoidably, or accidentally exposed to microwave radiation at approved levels. Yet an increasing number of people (around 15% according to Dr. Magda Havas), including children all over the world, are showing symptoms of ill health after exposure to WHO-approved levels of microwaves from transmitter towers, wireless internet and phones. The scientific research was there all along to show that this would happen, especially to children, but the science was simply not used by the WHO committee setting the standards.
April McCarthy is a community journalist playing an active role reporting and analyzing world events to advance our health and eco-friendly initiatives.

Sources :
  1. Prevent Disease
  2. Image Credit 1
  3. Image Credit 2

7 comments:

  1. At least some of these myths about WiFi sickness appear to be driven by the confusion over the word "radiation".

    Technically, radiation is any stream of elementary particles. The only thing in common between radiation emitted by wireless and gamma radiation arising from radioactive decay is that both are composed of photons.

    However, the energy of wireless radiation photons - the thing that determines their interactions with matter - is 10 orders of magnitude lower than for ionizing radiation and 6 orders of magnitude lower than for visible light. There is absolutely no reason to expect there will be similar health effects.

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    1. And we all know that too much exposure to sunlight can lead to skin cancer

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  2. The truth is virtually nothing grind has said has any merit whatsoever. What we do know however is that background radiation has increased in the last century. We also know that with radiation that it is the strength, type and the length of exposure. Meaning that just because you are alive and functioning today in this environment at this level of radiation doesn't mean that there cannot or will not be consequences to raising that and exposing yourself to it, without adverse effect in a lifetime. That remains to be tested...

    As for the experiment itself, I applaud the young girls in their resourcefulness and for scientists taking the time to evaluate it under laboratory conditions. I may even set up my own lab to allow me to do the same. Obviously many factors can affect seed germination however and altering the variables just enough can do just that. Even seed packs purchased from the same vendor can have one seed pack that germinates well and one that does not so even that can be an issue. It's too early to jump to conclusions however, their experiment is a step towards getting this issue some attention.

    I have no idea whether prolonged exposure to Wi-Fi will cause the myriad of problems mentioned above. However, our bodies are electrochemical machines and are far more fragile than we think and far more resilient than we can imagine. As electrochemical machines though, it does stand to reason that any exposure to anything magnetic, radioactive or chemical is going to cause a change within our bodies to some degree.

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    1. Wow, yeah, scientifically valid facts have "no merit". It doesn't "remain to be tested", it's fact. Please, gain some scientific literacy before spreading more fear-mongering nonsense.

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  3. Been Telling Folks for Years about Data coded Microwave Energy as well as uncoded energy (microwave ovens) being disruptive to living systems(organic life forms) on a cellular level!
    Wave forms can hurt kill destroy
    Wave forms can Heal soothe and comfort...
    cheap technology is not cheap if it Kills you...
    we have a choice...

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  4. I strongly suspect this has much more to do with an EM field than ionizing radiation as such.

    I'd love to see this experiment repeated with a series plants placed in concentric circles around a router to see if there's a dose-response effect. Energy from electromagnetic fields falls off at the cube of the distance, so it's possible that there are fields right next to the router that are disruptive, but those are minimal to non-existant even just a bit farther away

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  5. You need to do a better job of citing your sources. I see no factual basis for some of your claims. The sources you do use are not recognized as legitimate sources at all - one of the sources is basically about selling EMF products.

    You should be citing actual medical studies or journals, not random websites with supposed experts (See the MLA or Chicago Manual of Style). Not to mention, some of these resources are old - 2011 and even state there's not enough conclusive evidence yet. Something like this should have much newer sources to reference to avoid being labeled an "internet myth".

    While the students' experiment is notable, in order for their experiment to be valid, they would need to share their methods, establish controls and detail their process. It's good that this attracted attention but there are still many questions. For all we know, one set of plants was watered and the other wasn't. Did they get enough light inside? Were they temperature controlled? As a science experiment in high school this is hardly definitive evidence. As such, your title is misleading and would be better as "9th Grade Science Project Asks Can Plants Grow Near Wi-Fi?" or something less definite.

    Good luck with your research and your journalistic endeavors.

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