Forget About WiFi, You're Irradiating Your Child With The Baby Monitor

from the tinfoil-beanie dept

Newspapers and TV shows are having a great time fueling the freakout over the supposed dangers of WiFi, following the formula of technology paranoia + kids = gold. Over the weekend, the story was given a new twist, when one paper reported that radiation from baby monitors could be hurting babies. This is the sort of stuff the papers live for: the conflicts of modern life! Do you bathe your child with radiation and run the risk they'll grow a third arm or something, or not use the baby monitor and run the risk of missing out when the child needs you? Meanwhile, those laggards at the BBC are still worried about WiFi, with a new program claiming that radiation from a WiFi access point is three times greater than that from a mobile phone base station. Of course, never mind that the claims don't stand up to scientific scrutiny, and plenty of scientists -- without a vested interest in selling papers or attracting viewers with scare stories -- say it's safe. Some businesses, however, are lining up to capitalize on the fears, such as a Swiss company that's selling underwear woven from silver, which it says will ward off cell-phone radiation from the wearer's groin.
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  1. identicon
    What the, 21 May 2007 @ 3:39pm

    Who talks from their groin.

    Who talks from their groin anyway? Why do people fall for such foolish nonsense.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Daniel, 21 May 2007 @ 3:43pm

    The Groin speaks

    I know lots of people who talk out of their ass...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Daniel, 21 May 2007 @ 3:43pm

    The Groin speaks

    I know lots of people who talk out of their ass...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    MissingFrame, 21 May 2007 @ 3:57pm

    Re: Who talks from their groin.

    Who talks from their groin? Everyone who bought handsfree to keep from getting brain cancer.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2007 @ 4:07pm

    We're not going to make it, are we? The human race, I mean.*

    It's not the tech that will destroy us. It's our irrationality in the face of technology. Sometimes I worry that our minds weren't actually evolved to handle anything more than voodoo. That's what this fear of wifi is. Voodoo. Sympathetic magic.

    *Stolen from Terminator 2.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Ratatouille, 21 May 2007 @ 4:08pm

    Silver?

    Protect your child from WiFi and Werewolves!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    dorpus, 21 May 2007 @ 4:11pm

    Why stop there?

    Child safety seats have a nasty habit of decapitating the passengers they are supposed to protect. In my new hospital job, I got to see all the details of how this happened to one unfortunate child, her head flew through the windshield.

    Neighbor's swimming pools also tend to have a magnetic attraction for small children. One such child wandered away forever during a mother's day party, resulting in the mother going berserk, biting her tongue, and spraying blood all over the ER walls.

    But in our polite society, it's more fun to think about abstract threats.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2007 @ 4:17pm

    Neighbor's swimming pools also tend to have a magnetic attraction for small children. One such child wandered away forever during a mother's day party, resulting in the mother going berserk, biting her tongue, and spraying blood all over the ER walls.


    Thank you, David Lynch.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    PhysicsGuy, 21 May 2007 @ 5:02pm

    Re: Why stop there?

    wow, they actually allow you to work at a hospital? god has a cruel sense of humor.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Urza, 21 May 2007 @ 6:13pm

    Re: Who talks from their groin.

    Um...your phone is constantly transmitting and recieving. Unless you're like me and keep it turned off when not in use. But most people don't. So if you keep it in your pocket, unless you're using it a hell of a lot, you'll get more radiation to your groin than your head.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    buckykat, 21 May 2007 @ 6:15pm

    my tv station said something stupider

    they claim that you shouldn't try to conceive a baby during summer because it will do badly on standardized tests. this is denver's 7 news saying this.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous marsupial, 21 May 2007 @ 6:50pm

    Well Hi Dee Ho,
    Guess what ... life is eventually fatal for everyone.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2007 @ 8:21pm

    Not conceiving in the summer may have some merit. That has to do with pestisides being more abundant in the spring and summer. We all have to live life though, and to think of giving up a nice midsummer frolick in meadow, well, thats unspeakable.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    rEdEyEz, 21 May 2007 @ 8:52pm

    Re: Re: Moby be his name

    Forget about the third arm, if irradiating my son's loins will produce rampant abnormal growth, then it is within my interest and my Swiss daughter-in-law's interests that this "unforeseen phenomena" runs its "unnatural" course...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Lewis Salem, 21 May 2007 @ 10:00pm

    Nice post dorpus. You have emboldened us all with confidence in our health care system.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. identicon
    Dosquatch, 22 May 2007 @ 5:15am

    Re: Why stop there?

    Sure, even hospitals need janitors.
    Err, sanitation technicians. Custodial engineers?
    Goddammit, what's the current safe phrase for garbage man?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. identicon
    Dosquatch, 22 May 2007 @ 5:16am

    Re: Why stop there?

    OK, show of hands - who else immediately had a desire to strap the dorpus in a baby seat?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    Cixelsid, 22 May 2007 @ 5:38am

    Underwear woven from silver

    LOL! Let me just get my aluminium foil helmet and I'm good to go!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. identicon
    Anonymous of Course, 22 May 2007 @ 6:23am

    Re: Underwear woven from silver

    A cavity in a conductive material is a resonant
    circuit, even if it's filled with Q spoiling brains.
    The aluminium foil might hurt more than it helps.

    I think worrying about things like baby monitor
    emissions is rather strange given how the majority
    of automobile drivers conduct themselves.

    At least the woven silver underwear might retard
    bacterial growth. That's something.


    PS
    Dorpus makes me laugh. Is that wrong?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. identicon
    Cixelsid, 22 May 2007 @ 6:47am

    Re: Re: Underwear woven from silver

    PS
    Dorpus makes me laugh. Is that wrong?


    No, it just means you're slightly less anally retentive than most people. The guy cracks me up too.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. identicon
    Rational Beaver, 22 May 2007 @ 12:28pm

    I'm going to start selling swimsuits lined with sodium to...um...protect against any waterborne radiation.

    And rid the world of a few stupid people...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  22. identicon
    Matt Bennett, 22 May 2007 @ 2:22pm

    SPACE UNDIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  23. identicon
    Poss, 22 May 2007 @ 5:46pm

    Oh dear god, the madness spreads

    link to this | view in thread ]

  24. identicon
    Alan, 23 May 2007 @ 6:58am

    Re: Re: Why stop there?

    *** holding hand up high ***

    link to this | view in thread ]

  25. identicon
    Lloyd from Electricsense, 3 Aug 2010 @ 9:24am

    So you want to make your baby electrosensitive?

    Let's just be clear, I am electrosensitive and have been for over 8 years, and I am very used to people pooh poohing this whole thing, as your article does. But it does exist and believe me there can be nothing worse than putting an electromagnetic emitting device in your childs bedroom - long term this will do harm, science is still catching me up on this.
    Anyway, my advice, for what its worth, is if you do want to put a baby monitor in your childs bedroom make sure its a wired one or an analogue one, see http://electricsense.com/?p=897

    link to this | view in thread ]

  26. identicon
    Baby World, 29 Aug 2014 @ 1:59am

    baby safety

    we should always protect our babies from Werewolves and WiFi!

    link to this | view in thread ]


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