Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/07/nutter_tech/
Wi-Fi phobes hijack disability legislation
We're disabled, really, we are!
Posted in Financial News, 7th November 2008 15:57 GMT
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The city of Santa Fe is being taken to task over a plan to deploy a Wi-Fi network on the ground they're unfairly discriminating against people who are allergic to electromagnetic waves.
The complaint is spearheaded by Arthur Firstenberg, and the Cellular Phone Task Force*, as reported by (http://kob.com/article/stories/S451152.shtml) KOB-TV, and is based on the premise that putting up Wi-Fi equipment unfairly discriminates in breach of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Firstenberg would like to see Wi-Fi banned - in all public buildings, at least.
In fact Firstenberg would like to see a lot more than that, as outlined in his article (http://www.mindfully.org/Technology/2004/Electromagnetic-Fields-EMF1jun04.htm) on the subject entitled Killing Fields. He'd like government funding to pay for more attorneys and cover the cost of buying land for EMF-free sanctuaries.
City Councillor Ron Trujillo reckons the areas under contention are already awash with Wi-Fi signals, so any claim that the city's deployment will alter things is spurious:
"It's not 1692, it's 2008. Santa Fe needs to embrace this technology, it's not going away," Trujillo said. Clearly he's not a follower of General Ludd. ®
*No link to the group's web site, as it doesn't appear to have one. But then this, given Firstenberg's aversion to all things electric, should be obvious really.