Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/04/wi_fi_panic/
Killer Wi-Fi panics London's chattering classes
Naturopaths mobilise to combat wireless death rays
Posted in Wireless, 4th June 2007 09:58 GMT
Recent revelations that Wi-Fi may provoke spontaneous abortions in cattle, raise storms and tempests, curdle milk and fry children's brains (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/23/wifi_panic_again/) have had the desired effect among London's chattering classes, with panicked parents mobilising to contain the wireless menace.
According to The Independent, London-based Scooter Computer's call-out service has recently received "hundreds" of calls from concerned users in the wake of a chilling Panorama special last month which highlighted the possible risks of going wires-free.
The company's Will Foot explained: "I have never seen such a reaction. It's completely out of the blue. More than 50 per cent of enquiries were from people worried about Wi-Fi access."
Foot said Scooter Computer had already sent in tinfoil-clad suppression units to remove 25 systems, amid a flurry of Wi-Fi-busting vigilante action.
Nicola Hart, of north London's Dartmouth Park, was apparently "so concerned about the radiation emitted from the systems that she removed Wi-Fi from her home, and persuaded her neighbours and her daughter's school to do the same".
She claimed to have suffered "a lot of funny symptoms" at the hands of Wi-Fi, which she put down to "an early menopause". She explained: "We put the system in about four months ago because my 17-year-old son wanted to have access to the internet at the same time as us. I did not really think about any effects it might have."
Once the Wi-Fi was shown the door, Hart "began sleeping and feeling better", and this prompted her to persuade her six-year-old daughter's school in leafy Belsize Park to can its system. She noted: "A lot of the parents were very pleased, and a lot of my friends are very keen to have it taken out of their children's schools."
Sinead Griffiths, a researcher from Walthamstow, likewise binned Wi-Fi, mainly "to protect her children", although she admitted to suffering "headaches and lethargy". She said: "There is not enough information available on the subject. I don't want to take any risks. You just don't know what all this technology in the home is doing to us."
And to reinforce just how Wi-Fi might upset your ying-yang balance and provoke inauspicious feng shui, "The Independent's Green Goddess columnist Julia Stephenson reported last week that she too had disconnected her Wi-Fi, on the advice of her naturopath". ®
Bootnote
Thanks to Arthur Pewtey for the heads-up.