This sort of thing gets me mad.
Today, C4''s website recycles a P.A piece about WiFi technology in schools. This is not a new piece of quackery. But here we have those employed in teaching our kids coming out with this drivel.
"Wireless technology should be removed from schools because of fears it could cause cancer or make pupils sterile later in life, teachers have warned.The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) called for the Government to carry out an investigation taking into consideration the biological and thermal effects of "wi-fi".
Fears of cancer and sterility? Y0u can read the rest of the nonsense on C4's site here.
This is news only in the sense that repeating rubbish is news.
In fact the scaremongering began with a Panorama programme back in 2007. As usual, Ben Goldacre spotted the nonsense. You can read his piece here.
Then it was the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) who are deliberately misreading the evidence. Now it's the ATL.
I've no idea who this Colin Kenney is, or what qualifications he posesses, but there's not a scintilla of evidence supporting his suggestion that WiFi causes the damage claimed.
I'm sure his wired computer will enable him to read Goldacre's letter to the PAT back in June 2007. The link is here.
It's really easy to understand Mr Kenney, isn't it?
But really it's C4 who are to blame here. Nonsense pops up on the newswires all the time. But there should be someone at C4 looking for the drivel. I'm sure they wouldn't copy a piece telling parents not to have their kids inoculated with the MMR vaccine. Would they?
With the worst teenage pregnancy rate in Europe, what we really need is some technology that makes pupils sterile NOW. Er, temporarily, of course.
Posted by: Barrie | 13 April 2009 at 06:31 PM