TO: Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)
FROM: Joel M.
Moskowitz, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Family and Community
Health
School of Public Health
University of California,
Berkeley
RE: Adoption of Wi-Fi in Classrooms
DATE:
February 8, 2013
Based upon my review of the research of the health
effects associated with exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic
radiation (EMR), especially microwave radiation, I feel compelled to register my
concern that adoption of Wi-Fi in LAUSD classrooms is likely to put at risk the
health of many students and employees in the District.
In December, Dr.
Gayle Nicoll of URS Corporation asked me to serve as an expert reviewer for a
report that URS prepared for the LAUSD regarding the adoption of Wi-Fi in
classrooms. Since Ms. Nicoll could not assure me that URS has no conflicts of
interest, I turned down her request and sent her references to recent studies
about Wi-Fi radiation. I cc:ed Board members and key staff as I was concerned
about the health risks of unnecessarily subjecting 660,000 children to 13,000
hours of Wi-Fi microwave radiation during their K-12 school
years.
Although I have not seen the URS report, I imagine it is based on
the FCC's outmoded 1996 safety standards which only protect the public from the
thermal risk of RF EMR exposure (i.e., from heating of tissue). For the
past three years, in numerous media interviews I have been calling on the FCC to
strengthen its standards and testing procedures to protect the public and
workers from the low-intensity, non-thermal risks of RF EMR exposure that
have been reported in hundreds, if not thousands, of research studies. These
include increased risk of neurological and cardiovascular problems, sperm damage
and male infertility, reproductive health risks, and cancer.
The
precautionary principle should be applied to this critical policy
decision. This principle, developed at a U.N. environmental conference in 1992,
states that in the absence of scientific consensus if an action has a suspected
risk of causing harm, the burden of proof it is not harmful falls on those
taking the action, and all reasonable measures to reduce the risk must be
taken.
Internet access can be provided to students through wires or
optical fiber without installing Wi-Fi in the classrooms.
For further
information, please see my Electromagnetic Radiation Safety web site at
http://saferemr.blogspot.com where I
have archived news releases and links to recent reports by major scientific
groups and political agencies.
Sincerely,
Joel M. Moskowitz,
Ph.D.
