School Death: Sudden Death Syndrome, again

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The Heading says it all: another tragic episode of a young student
dying suddenly in a classroom setting. And yet again, this one happens
immediately after returning to the heavily electrosmogged classroom
environment. Oh no--let me not create an unsubstantiated link between
the two! We await now the post-mortem on this tragic passing of a very
young life.

Below the media account of this breaking news, I have pasted in earlier
submissions I have sent you on the stance the INTO (Irish National
Teachers Organisation) took in April 2007 against masts being located
near schools and Wifi being introduced to Irish schools.

My last entry below, is a transcription from THE SUNDAY TIMES last
Sunday (January 6, 2008) on how kids as young as four in an
"ultra-progressive" Irish-medium primary school do all their work on
laptops in a totally saturated EMF environment. Oh dear! Just what
does the future hold.

Best,

Imelda, Cork

___________________________________

IRISH INDEPENDENT. TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2008. Front page and page 3 of
print ed.

"'LITTLE ANGEL' DIES AT HIS SCHOOL DESK: SIX-YEAR-OLD COLLAPSES MINUTES
AFTER ARRIVING FOR START OF LESSONS."

And below is pasted from online UK News

"Last Updated: Tuesday, 8 January 2008, 10:55 GMT

E-mail this to a friend Printable version

Counsellors at school after death

Jamie McGee was a P2 pupil at St Patrick's Primary School Children and
staff at an Armagh school where a six-year-old boy died on Monday are
being offered counselling. The principal of St Patrick's Primary School,
Kevin Devlin, said everyone was devastated by the death of Jamie McGee
who collapsed in class.

A post mortem examination is expected to take place later.

"We're doing all we can but there's just such a state of shock," Mr
Devlin said. "It's such a traumatic time for everyone."

The school has remained open over the past two days and Mr Devlin said
it would be playing a part in the boy's funeral.

"Welfare officers from the education board are here to help both staff
and pupils," Mr Devlin said.

Teachers rushed to give the P2 pupil first aid after his collapse on
Monday morning, however he later died in Craigavon Area Hospital.

The police are investigating the boy's death.

Jamie was the eldest child of Gerald and Jill McGee, and had one younger
brother, Ben.

Requiem Mass will be held at 1130 GMT on Thursday at St Patrick's
Cathedral in Armagh."

______________________

And pasted from Irish News (Belfast) online:

Little Jamie dies during class Jamie Magee collapsed and died yesterday
at St Patrick's Primary, in Armagh city. By Shelley Marsden
- 08/01/08

Family and friends of the six-year-old pupil say they have lost a
?little angel?.

The boy had just started back at classes after the Christmas break when
he collapsed in class shortly after 9am.His mother had only left him off
to school minutes before the tragedy.

Jamie's devastated family is being comforted. Staff at his school spoke
last night of the desperate attempts to revive little Jamie while they
waited for the ambulance to arrive.

Paramedics then worked on the boy for another 20 minutes, before rushing
him to Craigavon Area Hospital some 15 miles away. Jamie, however, was
pronounced dead at the A&E department, as his family stood around his
bedside.

Father Tommy McNulty, who was with Jamie?s parents Jill and Gerald when
their son died, said: "It was a very sad sight for those parents. There
were tears as the little fellow was just lying there with his family
gathered around him.''

Local Sinn Fein councillor, Cathy Rafferty, said the news had shaken her
badly. "This is heart-breaking news for the child's parents and family
circle as well as the other children and staff at the school," she said.

There will be a post-mortem carried out today on Jamie?s body.

______________________________________

Sent on Saturday September 22, 2007

This is definitely for posting as it is too serious not to circulate
widely.

The shocking news is as follows: On my arrival in Belfast, last
Thursday afternoon,September 20, the front page story facing me on the
BELFAST TELEGRAPH (final edition) was this: "TEENAGE BOY DIES AT
SCHOOL." And, as with the other tragic four cases just a short time ago
in Ireland, he dropped dead of heart failure in front of his school
mates. The Londonderry/Derry teenager James McGowan was all of fifteen
years of age! Now, just add this latest victim of our health-abusive
electrosmogged schools to the facts I sent you below just a mere two
weeks ago. The bottom line is: Irish teenagers with hearts that are in
any way dicey (and a few of the victims may not have had any previous
heart problems) just can't survive the Hi_Fi etc school environments.

_______________________________________

I sent the below to Denis Bohane, President of INTI)Irish National
Teachers' Organisation) on April 23, 2007

Sent to: Denis Bohane dbo...@into.ie Subject: INDEPENDENT: UK teachers
gravely concerned about Wi-Fi's health-effects on students To:
ehsi...@yahoo.co.uk To:

Denis Bohane, President, INTO

Dear Denis: My late parents who spent their entire careers as Primary
Teachers in Camus, Rosmuc, and Furbo (near Spiddal) would have been so
proud of the ethical stance you have taken against the erection of masts
near schools. I, their sixty two year old youngest daughter, am very
EHS (electrohypersensitive) and together with other concerned activists,
lobby extensively in Ireland and internationally for medical cum
governmental recognition of EHS. If you visit the Irish Doctors
Environmental Association (IDEA) website, you will see that they fully
support our EHS campaign.

In case you have not seen today's INDEPENDENT article on British
teachers' grave concerns regards their students' exposure to Wi-Fi, I am
forwarding it to you.

Regards,

Imelda O'Connor IERVN (Irish Electromagnetic Radiation Victims Network)

From The Independent(UK):

Wi-Fi: Children at risk from 'electronic smog'

23 April 2007

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2472133.ece

Revealed - radiation threat from new wireless computer networks Teachers
demand inquiry to protect a generation of pupils

By Geoffrey Lean, environment editor

Published: 22 April 2007

Britain's top health protection watchdog is pressing for a formal
investigation into the hazards of using wireless communication networks
in schools amid mounting concern that they may be damaging children's
health, 'The Independent on Sunday' can reveal.

Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency, wants
pupils to be monitored for ill effects from the networks - known as
Wi-Fi - which emit radiation and are being installed in classrooms
across the nation.

Sir William - who is a former chief scientific adviser to the
Government, and has chaired two official inquiries into the hazards of
mobile phones - is adding his weight to growing pressure for a similar
examination of Wi-Fi, which some scientists fear could cause cancer and
premature senility.

Wi-Fi - described by the Department of Education and Skills as a
"magical" system that means computers do not have to be connected to
telephone lines - is rapidly being taken up inschools, with estimates
that more than half of primary schools - and four-fifths of secondary
schools - have installed it .

But several European provincial governments have already taken action to
ban, or limit, its use in the classroom, and Stowe School has partially
removed it after a teacher became ill.

This week the Professional Association of Teachers, which represents
35,000 staff across the country, will write to Alan Johnson, Secretary
of State for Education, to demand an official inquiry. Virtually no
studies have been carried out into Wi-Fi's effects on pupils, but it
gives off radiation similar to emissions from mobile phones and phone
masts.

Recent research has linked radiation from mobiles to cancer and to brain
damage. And many studies have found disturbing symptoms in people near
masts.

Professor Olle Johansson, of Sweden's prestigious Karolinska Institute,
who is deeply concerned about the spread of Wi-Fi, says there are
"thousands" of articles in scientific literature demonstrating "adverse
health effects". He adds: "Do we not know enough already to say, 'Stop!'?"

For the past 16 months, the provincial government of Salzburg in Austria
has been advising schools not to install Wi-Fi, and is considering a
ban. Dr Gerd Oberfeld, its head of environmental health and medicine,
calls the technology "dangerous".

Sir William - who takes a stronger position on the issue than his agency
- was not available for comment yesterday, but two members of an expert
group that he chairs on the hazards of radiation spoke of his concern.

Mike Bell, chairman of the Electromagnetic Radiation Research Trust,
says that he has been "very supportive of having Wi-Fi examined and
doing something about it". And Alasdair Philips, director of Powerwatch,
an information service, said that he was pressing for monitoring of the
health of pupils exposed to Wi-Fi.

Labour MP Ian Gibson, who was interviewed with Sir William for a
forthcoming television programme, last week said that he backed
proposals for an inquiry.

AND:

Danger on the airwaves: Is the Wi-Fi revolution a health tims bomb?

It's on every high street and in every coffee shop and school. But
experts have serious concerns about the effects of electronic smog from
wireless networks linking our laptops and mobiles, reports Geoffrey Lean

The Independent, Published: 22 April 2007

Being "wired-up" used to be shorthand for being at the cutting edge,
connected to all that is cool. No longer. Wireless is now the only thing
to be.Go into a Starbucks, a hotel bar or an airport departure lounge
and you are bound to see people tapping away at their laptops, invisibly
connected to the internet. Visit friends, and you are likely to be shown
their newly installed system.Lecture at a university and you'll find the
students in your audience tapping away, checking your assertions on the
world wide web almost as soon as you make them. And now the technology
is spreading like a Wi-Fi wildfire throughout Britain's primary and
secondary schools.

The technological explosion is even bigger than the mobile phone
explosion that preceded it. And, as with mobiles, it is being followed
by fears about its effect on health - particularly the health of
children. Recent research, which suggests that the worst fears about
mobiles are proving to be justified, only heightens concern about the
electronic soup in which we are increasingly spending our lives.

Now, as we report today, Sir William Stewart (pictured below right), the
man who has issued the most authoritative British warnings about the
hazards of mobiles, is becoming worried about the spread of Wi-Fi. The
chairman of the Health Protection Agency - and a former chief scientific
adviser to the Government - is privately pressing for an official
investigation of the risks it may pose.

Health concerns show no sign of slowing the wireless expansion. One in
five of all adult Britons now own a wireless-enabled laptop. There are
35,000 public hotspots where they can use them, usually at a price.

In the past 18 months 1.6 million Wi-Fi terminals have been sold in
Britain for use in homes, offices and a host of other buildings. By some
estimates, half of all primary schools and four fifths of all secondary
schools have installed them.

Whole cities are going wireless. First up is the genteel, almost
bucolic, burgh of Norwich, which has installed a network covering almost
the whole of its centre, spanning a 4km radius from City Hall. It takes
in key sites further away, including the University of East Anglia and a
local hospital, and will be expanded to take in rural parts of the south
of the county.

More than 200 small aerials were attached to lamp posts to create the
network, which anyone can use free for an hour. There is nothing to stop
the 1,000 people who use it each day logging off when their time is up,
and logging on again for another costless session.

"We wanted to see if something like this could be done," says Anne
Carey, the network's project manager. "People are using it and finding
it helpful. It is, I think, currently the largest network of its kind."

Not for much longer. Brighton plans to launch a city-wide network next
year, and Manchester is planning one covering over 400 square miles,
providing free access to 2.2 million people.

So far only a few, faint warnings have been raised, mainly by people who
are so sensitised to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobiles,
their masts and Wi-Fi that they become ill in its presence. The World
Health Organisation estimates that up to three out of every hundred
people are "electrosensitive" to some extent. But scientists and doctors
- and some European governments - are adding their voices to the alarm
as it becomes clear that the almost universal use of mobile phones may
be storing up medical catastrophe for the future.

A recent authoritative Finnish study has found that people who have used
mobiles for more than ten years are 40 per cent more likely to get a
brain tumour on the same side of the head as they hold their handset;
Swedish research suggests that the risk is almost four times as great.
And further research from Sweden claims that the radiation kills off
brain cells, which could lead to today's younger generation going senile
in their forties and fifties.

Professor Lawrie Challis, who heads the Government's official mobile
safety research, this year said that the mobile could turn out to be
"the cigarette of the 21st century".

There has been less concern about masts, as they emit very much less
radiation than mobile phones. But people living - or attending schools -
near them are consistently exposed and studies reveal a worrying
incidence of symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, nausea, dizziness and
memory problems. There is also some suggestion that there may be an
increase in cancers and heart disease.

Wi-Fi systems essentially take small versions of these masts into the
home and classroom - they emit much the same kind of radiation. Though
virtually no research has been carried out, campaigners and some
scientists expect them to have similar ill-effects. They say that we are
all now living in a soup of electromagnetic radiation one billion times
stronger than the natural fields in which living cells have developed
over the last 3.8 billion years. This, they add, is bound to cause trouble

Prof Leif Salford, of Lund University - who showed that the radiation
kills off brain cells - is also deeply worried about wi-fi's addition to
"electronic smog".

There is particular concern about children partly because they are more
vulnerable - as their skulls are thinner and their nervous systems are
still developing - and because they will be exposed to more of the
radiation during their lives.

The Austrian Medical Association is lobbying against the deployment of
Wi-Fi in schools. The authorities of the province of Salzburg has
already advised schools not to install it, and is now considering a ban.
Dr Gerd Oberfeld, Salzburg's head of environmental health and medicine,
says that the Wi-Fi is "dangerous" to sensitive people and that "the
number of people and the danger are both growing".

In Britain, Stowe School removed Wi-Fi from part of its premises after a
classics master, Michael Bevington - who had taught there for 28 years -
developed headaches and nausea as soon as it was installed.

Ian Gibson, the MP for the newly wireless city Norwich is calling for an
official inquiry into the risks of Wi-Fi. The Professional Association
of Teachers is to write to Education Secretary Alan Johnson this week to
call for one.

Philip Parkin, the general secretary of the union, says; "I am concerned
that so many wireless networks are being installed in schools and
colleges without any understanding of the possible long-term consequences.

"The proliferation of wireless networks could be having serious
implications for the health of some staff and pupils without the cause
being recognised."

But, he added, there are huge commercial pressures" which may be why
there has not yet been "any significant action".

Guidelines that were ignored

The first Stewart Report, published in May 2000, produced a series of
sensible recommendations. They included: discouraging children from
using mobiles, and stopping the industry from promoting them to the
young; publicising the radiation levels of different handsets so that
customers could choose the lowest; making the erection of phone masts
subject to democratic control through the planning system; and stopping
the building of masts where the radiation "beam of greatest intensity"
fell on schools, unless the school and parents agreed.

The Government accepted most of these recommendations, but then, as 'The
Independent on Sunday' has repeatedly pointed out, failed to implement
them. Probably, it has lost any chance to curb the use of mobiles by
children and teenagers. Since the first report, mobile use by the young
has doubled.

Additional reporting by Paul Bignall, Will Dowling and Jude Townend

---------------------------

THE IRISH TIMES, APRIL 9, 2007

Call for ban on mobile phone masts near schools Seán Flynn

Irish National Teachers' Organisation president Denis Bohane addressing
the annual congress in the Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork, yesterday.
Photograph: Daragh Mac Sweeney/ProvisionMobile phone companies which
built masts close to schools "without concern for pupils or teachers"
were strongly criticised by the INTO president last night.

Denis Bohane demanded new rules which would ban the siting of phone
masts near schools.

He also challenged retailers to prove that school uniforms were not made
using child labour.

Speaking during the opening session of the union's annual conference in
Cork the INTO president said that an independent agency was required to
measure the effects of radiation from phone masts.

"Taking data from the companies themselves is like asking Jaws if it is
safe to go back in the water," he said. "The unconstrained ability of
mobile phone operators to put phone masts near schools is the height of
irresponsibility and places children at an unquantifiable risk.

"We are demanding an end to this unregulated practice and calling for
regulation forbidding the construction of masts near schools."

There was strong evidence, he said, of the health risks associated with
exposure to electric and magnetic fields and electromagnetic radiation.
"Recent studies show that people within 300 metres of mobile phone base
stations suffer fatigue, headaches, concentration difficulties,
depression, memory loss, visual and hearing disruptions, irritability,
skin problems and dizziness."

______________________________________

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 13:12:03 +0000 (GMT)

Subject: ADDITIONAL: IRISH NAT. TEACHERS CALL FOR MOBILE PHONE MAST BAN
NEAR SCHOOLS FOR HEALTH REASONS

Hi Klaus: Additional to the Irish Times report I send you yesterday
("Call for ban on mobile phone masts near schools") is this related
short report by journalist Katherine Donnelly which features in
Tuesday's IRISH INDEPENDENT. While THE IRISH TIMES report focused
exclusively on president Denis Bohane's address, the IRISH INDEPENDENT
gives the valuable additional information that the union that
represents the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO)is taking
serious steps against masts being placed near schools. I will
transcribe the relevant paragraphs below.

IRISH INDEPENDENT

TUESDAY, 10 APRIL, 2007 (page 7, print ed.)

"TEACHERS WANT BAN ON PHONE MASTS"

[by] Katherine Donnelly

Primary teachers are demanding a ban on the erection of mobile phone
masts in the vicinity of their schools. Children's health is being put
at risk by unregulated capitalism, the opening session of the Irish
National Teachers Organisation (INTO) heard last night. The union, which
has 29,000 members in the Republic, is demanding regulations to prevent
the siting of masts near schools. It also wants an independent agency
to measure the effects of radiation from the masts. INTO president
Denis Bohane told the conference that there was strong evidence around
the world of health risks associated with exposure to electric and
magnetic fields and electromagnetic radiation. He said relying on
information from the mobile phone companies themselves was like "asking
jaws if it safe to go back into the water." Mr Bohane said recent
studies showed that people within 300m of mobile phone base stations
suffered fatigue, headaches, concentration difficulties, depression,
memory loss, visual and hearing disruptions, irritability, skin problems
and dizziness. While data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) was
being used by providers to claim that these masts are safe, this was out
of date and even when it was collected in 2000 the health effects were
not fully researched. "Because children's bodies are developing and
research is not complete on the long term health effecs we should be
even more cautious in allowing masts to be erected where children spend
considerable amounts of time."

. . .

Here is some really good news for us as published in today's THE IRISH
TIMES. Best, Imelda, Cork.

THE IRISH TIMES, APRIL 9, 2007

Call for ban on mobile phone masts near schools Seán Flynn

Denis Bohane demanded new rules which would ban the siting of phone
masts near schools.

He also challenged retailers to prove that school uniforms were not made
using child labour.

Speaking during the opening session of the union's annual conference in
Cork the INTO president said that an independent agency was required to
measure the effects of radiation from phone masts.

"We are demanding an end to this unregulated practice and calling for
regulation forbidding the construction of masts near schools."

In his address he also challenged clothing retailers to demonstrate that
school uniforms were not being made through the use of child labour in
the developing world.

He said that questions were being asked about how retailers could
produce ever-cheaper school uniforms.

"Every year there is a big fuss about the high cost of school uniforms,
but there is no focus on the fact that in some shops children can be
dressed to go back to school for practically nothing. How can these be
produced at such low costs?"

Mr Bohane challenged parents to stop and think before they bought
back-to-school clothes. He added: "If child labour is being used to
produce school uniforms here, then Irish people are effectively denying
children in poorer countries an education."

___________________________________________

Transcribed below:

THE SUNDAY TIMES, JANUARY 6, 2008. PRINT EDITION: MAIN SECTION PAGE 9,
EDUCATION

"WELCOME TO EDUCATION 2.0

GAELSCOIL [Those schools in Ireland that teach all subjects through the
medium of Irish] O DOGHAIR IS AN E-LEARNING PIONEER, BUT WHY ISN'T THE
REST OF IRELAND FOLLOWING ITS LEAD, ASKS SARAH O'SULLIVAN Four-year-old
children walk around with laptops under their arms in a glass-walled
school shaped like a spaceship. This is not science fiction: it is a
primary school in Co Limerick whose students have developed a
solar-powered guitar among other high-tech classroom projects. Gaelscoil
O Doghair in Newcastle West is an epicentre of technology, designed in
the image of the Millenium Falcon ship from Star Wars. Here the teacher
is no longer a central and authoritative figure, merely a guide to
learning. Children work on laptops and watch webcasts as part of their
daily lessons. Parent-teacher meetings centre around the child's
digital portfolio, as displayed on Bluetooth-operated screens. So, is
this the future for the rest of Ireland's children? And are Irish
schools ready for the advent of the digital classroom? In the words of
Daithi O Nurchu, the school's prinicpal, all schools should aspire to
the "abuse of technology". "It's about learning to learn," he said.
"The children here put the humanity back into technology." O Murchu says
this is more than a school, it's a centre of learning. Even its
horseshoe shape has been designed to allow children to look out of the
window and watch each other learn. Each classroom has a large,
interactive screen, with live television streaming, cinema and
surround-sound. "Everyone interacts in the classroom," said O Murchu.
"It's all about collaboration. The role of the treacher and the pupils
is constantly reversing and evolving. The teachers learn so much from
the children and their uniques command of technology." The school's
Christmas show was aired live on the web last month. "The children
could e-mail their family overseas and get them to tune in," the
principal said. "It was amazing." Quick to point out that more
traditional teaching methods, such as tables and handwriting, are still
used in the school, O Murchu acknowledges that their delivery is
somewhat different from the norm. When infants learn to write, he
explains, rather than listen to the teacher sing songs from the
Letterland literacy program, they can download versions in which the
letters jump to life on the screen. The children practise forming
letters on screen with their fingers. "It's like magic and they love
it," he says. Research by Miriam Judge, a communications lecturer at
Dublin City University, has found that interactive whiteboards result in
more creative classrooms and improved concentration levels among
students. O Murchu is critical of the lack of government assistance
available to set up a "world-class school". He petitioned for support to
create this pilot scheme, but got no backing, and instead had to sell
land in order to pay for the technology. "It's a disgrace there was no
investment from government in this project," he said. Some critics say
the government's commitment to information and communications technology
(ICT) in the classroom has waned in recent years. The Irish National
Teachers' Organisation (INTO) last week demanded that something be done.
It said about 252m [euros] had been promised to the sector in the
National development Plan (NDP) published last January, but "Not one
red cent" of that money has been spent to date. The 2005 census report
on ICT infrastructure in schools found much of the computer equipment
needed replacing. There was also a need for more technical support and
for better software and digital resources.

John Carr, general secretary of the INTO, queried why there was no
gevernment-set minimum standard of computer equipment for schools and
said there was a "digital divide" between families that can afford
computers and those that cannot. "Only the children of the wealthy get
the same exposure to computers, either in school or at home," he said.
"Where schools have computer facilities they are the result of local
fundraising or support from businesses." The Department of Education and
Science says it has spent 200m [euros] on ICT in schools since 1998.
"ICT is important both in terms of affording students the opportunity to
achieve computer literacy and enhancing educational experience," it
said. It promised an e-learning culture would be "embedded in teaching
and learning" in the future. Last February, the department commissioned
a strategy group to advise on how best to spend the 252m [euros]
earmarked under the NDP for 2007 to 2013. The group has finalised its
report and it will be presented to the education miinster shortly.
Jerome Morrissey, director of National Centre for Technology in
Education, and chairman of the advisory group, said there were three
priorities for ICT spending. These are the renewal/replacement of
equipment, the provision of technical support to schools and increased
broadband bandwidth. Money has been spent on ICT in recent years, says
Morrissey, but some of this was not very visible, such as the task of
networking school computers so broadband could be used more effectively.
Morrissey said ICT was an integral part of life in the 21st century and
"has to be incorporated into the process of education". The skills
necessary to perform in the workplace can either be taught directly or
incorporated through learning methods. He believes the latter is the
best approach. "That way, skills are embedded in the way learning
happens, so students are less likely to become bored, and are able to
successfully manipulate technology in the future," he said. Tomas
Finneran, co-founder of the e-learning group Fluirse, believes 252m
[euros] isn't enough. "That amount could service the sector if an
initial investment was made, but on its own will achieve little," he
said. "A number like 252m [euros] looks great in the headlines,
especially in the run-up to an election, but it's a piecemeal solution
if you look at the infrastructure that is in place at the moment." O
Murchu reckons the country stands at a post Celtic tiger crossroads, and
needs to choose the road that leads to a technological future. "Now is
our chance to re-create ourselves, instead of always concentrating on
retro-business. We need to enhance what we have and keep what is
authentically ours," he said. "Why can't we create something that is
truly ours, rather than continue to have so much of our GDP dependent on
a small number of external companies."

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