A Massachusetts couple has filed a lawsuit against a local private school, claiming the institute’s strong Wi-Fi signal is making their son sick.
The parents, who remain anonymous, say their 12-year-old son is a student at Fay School in Southborough and suffers from electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome (EHS). This is a condition where electromagnetic radiation emitted from wireless technology causes nosebleeds, headaches, exhaustion and other symptoms.
According to the parents, their boy has suffered from these symptoms since 2013, which is when the school strengthened their wireless signal.
While EHS is not a widely recognized medical condition, the World Health Organization first acknowledged it in 2005. Additionally, the boy’s physician Dr. Jeanne Hubbuch says there’s no other explanation for his symptoms.
In a letter to Fay School, Hubbuch wrote: “It is known that exposure to Wi-Fi can have cellular effects. The complete extent of these effects on people is still unknown. But it is clear that children and pregnant women are at the highest risk. This is due to the brain tissue being more absorbent, their skulls are thinner and their relative size is small.”
The parents first brought their son’s health issue to the school’s attention in 2014. The institute then hired radio-signal measurement company Isotrope to assess the radiation levels at the school and found them to be within federal safety limits.
“Isotrope’s assessment was completed in January 2015 and found that the combined levels of access point emissions, broadcast radio and television signals, and other RFE emissions on campus ‘were substantially less than one ten-thousandth (1/10,000th) of the applicable safety limits (federal and state),” the school said in a statement.
Despite this, the parents are now seeking $250,000 in damages, reports The Telegram & Gazette. The family is also demanding the school either turn down their Wi-Fi signal or switch to Ethernet cables.
This isn’t the first time a lawsuit has been filed against a school because of its Wi-Fi. In 2012, a lawsuit to remove Wi-Fi from Oregon schools was filed and dismissed and a similar instance occurred in 2004 regarding Wi-Fi in Illinois schools.
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