Education - resources for schools and parents

Students and staff are exposed to radiofrequency radiation from mobile and cordless phones, wireless access points, laptops, tablets, earbuds and, potentially nearby mobile phone or NBN transmitters.

They can also be exposed to magnetic fields from high voltage powerlines, wiring or electrical equipment.

Example: In one classroom, we found magnetic fields over 4 times the level classified as a Class 2B carcinogen from an underfloor cable.

Schools have a legal responsibility to provide a safe working and learning environment. For example:

The NSW Department of Education believes that the provision of a safe working and learning environment for everyone at its workplaces is an integral and essential part of the responsibilities as a provider of public education. Work Health and Safety (WHS) Policy

The health, safety and well-being of staff and students is a priority for the department. Queensland Department of Education 

…all institutions, services and facilities responsible for the care and protection of children and young persons provide an environment for them that is free of violence and exploitation and provide services that foster their health, developmental needs, spirituality, self-respect and dignity, Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 No 157 (NSW)

However, most schools don't know whether the school environment is safe for students and staff because they don't know what fields are present at school. EMR Australia can help with that.

• Children are exposed to more radiation in schools than ever before.
• Young, developing brains and bone marrow are more vulnerable to radiation.
• In many schools, staff and students use mobile phones and tablets in ways that do not comply with user guidelines and that could expose them to more radiation than permitted by the Australian standard.
• A large body of legislation requires the application of a precautionary approach to potential risks.
• Compliance with the Australian standard does not guarantee your school meets its legal obligations to provide a safe working and learning environment. You can see more details here.
• Educational decision-makers may be personally liable for failure to take steps to implement a safe learning and work environment.
• France has already banned mobile phones on school premises.

1. The reaction time to sound and light stimuli is increased
2. There is an increase in the number of violations of phonemic perception and the number of missed signals when a sound stimulus is presented
3. Indicators of arbitrary attention and semantic memory deteriorate
4. There are increased parameters of fatigue and decreased parameters of working capacity

‘A Longitudinal Study of Psychophysiological Indicators in Pupils Users of Mobile Communications in Russia (2006–2017) Children Are in the Group of Risk’, by Yury G. Grigoriev and Natalia I. Khorseva in ‘Mobile Communications and Public Health’, Marko Markov (Ed), CRC Press, 2019.

‘It opens them up to all sort of liability issues, not only in civil law, but also in criminal [law]’

Raymond Broomhall, barrister.

 

In this video, you can hear barrister Raymond Broomhall has to say about the legal risks schools and Education Departments face when they allow students to be exposed to electromagnetic radiation. 

Ray talks about educators’ legal obligations to protect students and staff from risks and about legislation they need to consider. He explains why complying with the Australian standard is not enough to protect them from litigation, why their insurance policy may not cover them and why litigation is about to boom.

EMR Australia can help protect your staff and students and minimise the school's legal risks. We can:

• provide a professional testing service
• work with you to develop an appropriate policy for technology use in your school that embodies the precautionary approach
• provide staff training by an experienced educator
• provide an online training program for students
• provide you with meters for testing fields in your school
• implement wired computer networks to minimise exposure.

If you believe that the effects of WiFi, mobile phones, or mobile phone tower base stations have caused injury to yourself, your child/children or a friend, you are not alone. The increasingly widespread use of WiFi across business and government (especially in schools) is a move that goes against the rapidly mounting body of credible scientific evidence which makes increasingly clear that exposure to even low levels of electromagnetic radiation (also known as EMR), which includes WiFi, on an ongoing basis has a wide range of serious adverse health effects.

Contact us to see how we can help your school.