Study links WiFi with childhood autism

While there seems to be relatively few things that WiFi hasn't been linked to, it seems that a new study has managed to turn up yet another potential peril, in this case a link to childhood autism. According to the study published in the Australasian Journal of Clinical Environmental Medicine, the electromagnetic radiation from WiFi devices supposedly causes metals to be trapped in individuals' brain cells, which the researchers say slows clearance and accelerates the onset of autism symptoms. As Computer Weekly points out, however, a number of health agencies, including the World Health Organization, have repeatedly examined the issue and found no danger from WiFi devices (or cellphones, for that matter) operating at levels below international guidelines. Still, we have a sneaking suspicion that this is far from the last study of this sort we'll see, at least until each WiFi router shipped comes bundled with a tinfoil bodysuit.

[Via Switched]

[Flashpoint @ Nov 23rd 2007 12:01PM]

Autism is pervasive and cannot be linked to any one cause.
There are cases of Autism leading to austitic savantism due to CAR CRASHES and brain injuries (specifically, brain injuries to certain parts of the brain).

Activists tried to link Autism to mercury poisoning in immunizations and the conclusion claimed there was no true link there.

It does seem logical that wifi (radio wave radiation ) could possibly lead to damage n human development. One of my Physics professors suggested constant bombardment by certain frequencies of radiation could possibly ACCELERATE particles and molecules in the human body.

[umm....hello??? @ Nov 21st 2007 6:49PM]

what a bunch of BS.

here's one:
STUDY: anything wireless gives you cancer. dumbasses.

[umm....hello??? @ Nov 21st 2007 6:49PM]

/end sarcasm

[ben @ Nov 21st 2007 6:56PM]

Well according to every report everything is linked to cancer. Soon enough we will be hearing that water is the true link to cancer and that if you ever used a keyboard you are 75% more likely to have cancer.

[Ellianth @ Nov 21st 2007 9:02PM]

This just in:

Study links wifi to enabling people to get online without wires!!!

This just in: Without doing any research my study is more valid than all the other "wifi inked to" studies.

Can i have a Nobel prize or something?

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Nov 22nd 2007 1:12AM]

Wait a minute....

Wasn't autism around long before Wifi? Am I missing something here?

[Adoniteking @ Nov 21st 2007 6:50PM]

...word!...

[Jimbo @ Nov 21st 2007 6:59PM]

Metals... creeping...int o ..b.b.brain...cells..can't type...ooo steel in my pons.... ooh.. mercury in my cere..b.b.bell.ll....

[Andrew Edman @ Nov 27th 2007 12:22PM]

the world health organization helped create and spread AIDS. I think that I'll take what they say with a grain of salt and a diseased needle.

[Mark Richardson @ Nov 21st 2007 7:52PM]

The WHO created and spread AIDS? I've heard some pretty good conspiracy theories in my day, but I think this one takes the cake. I'm no fan of the WHO either, but get real, buddy.

[Arthur Nonamiss @ Nov 23rd 2007 2:01AM]

Wow... finally someone more paranoid and crazy than myself!

[Ignatius @ Nov 21st 2007 7:16PM]

Wow.

STOP BREATHING NOW: BREATHING CAUSES CANCER.

[Magallanes @ Nov 22nd 2007 11:59AM]

In facts breathing cause oxidation, and oxidation can cause not only cancer but aging and death. So, the only way to living eternally is to stop breathing ->

[FOTOS @ Nov 22nd 2007 8:20AM]

This is very good, and i think all the people of the wordl!!!!

[Nubaeus @ Nov 21st 2007 7:27PM]

Mac's cause cancer

How to stop the disease?

Stop conforming to the popular pos

[Ian @ Nov 21st 2007 9:42PM]

o my lord. you are a flaming pile of poo, and you and your dumb ass can go away because you cause me cancer and if i see another person cry and complain about a mac ad ill fucking flip. if you dont like them get the fuck out. if u dont like them but dont want to leave then get a adblocker like everyone keeps saying. so shut up we know you dont like the ads, but guess what the writers here have NOTHING TO DO WITH THE AD'S so fuck off you flaming pile of poo.

anyways did you know asphalt gives you cancer too, it just takes over 100 years for it to do it. so basically everything gives you cancer we know we dont care.

[tits @ Nov 21st 2007 10:17PM]

nop! mac does not cause cancer... it just make your ego bigger/wallet lighter.

[mcchen @ Nov 21st 2007 7:36PM]

Anyone google that journal? It doesn't appear to be a valid scientific journal.

[Tito @ Nov 21st 2007 8:48PM]

Indeed... closest I could find to an official release :
http://tinyurl.com/22t7wt

Peer-reviewed... Unfortunately peers can be idiots too.

[Eric @ Nov 21st 2007 7:38PM]

The wonderful smell of BS.

If there was enough force in WiFi signals to attract metal into the brain, a megawatt radio station would be a danger to planes at 10k feet.

[DAniel @ Nov 21st 2007 8:06PM]

MAkes me wonder if anyone's ever done a study on long-term exposure to radio waves and cancer... As far as I know, cancer has been a mostly recent phenomenon (I could be wrong about this) because I rarely here about it coming u pin historic accounts. Now that we've had people exposed to radio waves constantly over an 80 year period, one has to wonder... likewise wifi signals, satellite TV, cellular phone signals. It's enough to make you wonder if these things affect developing fetuses. Think about it-- a pregnant woman who walks down a typical city street is bombarded with electromagnetic waves of varying frquency and wavelength. I can't say for sure there's a correlation, but it makes you wonder...

[Ian @ Nov 21st 2007 9:44PM]

well 1 reason (im just kinda guessing on this one) that historical evidence against cancer doesnt come up is because people didnt know about it. they didnt understand the difference between cancer cells and regular ones. that might be a reason

[Arthur Nonamiss @ Nov 23rd 2007 2:12AM]

There also weren't many reported cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae 500 years ago, either. That doesn't mean it didn't exist.

Cancer didn't exist then because they just thought it was an evil troll that lived in your stomach. Then, when they used a rusty knife to cut you so they could remove 5-6 pints of "bad blood" and you died anyways, they concluded it must've been because you missed confession the previous week.

[Creator @ Nov 21st 2007 7:39PM]

If wifi cause autisim then send you f***ing kids outside to play instead of in front of the computer and videogames. even if it doesn't send them outside to play anyway.

[Ellianth @ Nov 21st 2007 9:05PM]

Because it's impossible for them to be hit by radio waves outside 8-).

[Chanz @ Nov 21st 2007 7:52PM]

Hmm... Guess its time to bust out my 100 meter ethernet cable again...

[The_Yeti @ Nov 21st 2007 8:01PM]

Just for you kids playing at home...,

Austism Spectrum Disorder is a mental disability, most kids a born with it and specilists are able to diagnose it from an early age (~2yo). Nearly everything has been blamed for causing this mental disability, and we still don't know what causes it, (one of the great mysteries of medicine), and hence there is no 'cure', however it is most likely genetic.

Take this article with a truckload of salt.

[Hany Hanna @ Nov 21st 2007 8:15PM]

It appears like many of your brains have already been affected. AIDS WAS a biological weapon AND WAS spread intentionally....cancer is epidemic right now...how can so many people be soooooo clueless?

[Ian @ Nov 21st 2007 9:47PM]

wait, your saying AIDS is a weapon? what the hell? why would you even come to that conclusion? i dont even know what to say about that. its such a crazy idea that i think your a bonafide idiot.

along with 1/4 of the nation (guess what thats from and ill give u a cookie)

[Ian H. @ Nov 22nd 2007 9:29AM]

Some weapon...

"Sir, we've developed a biological that takes 6 months to show up and 20 years to kill anyone infected with it."
"Sounds great! Roll it out!"

[Wonderboy @ Nov 22nd 2007 1:22PM]

Southpark. *holds out hand*

[kureshii @ Nov 21st 2007 8:29PM]

"apparently causes the metals to be trapped in cells"... wow, that's not too far off from "and then a miracle occurs and metals are trapped in cells"

And how come that journal can't be googled? And I'm talking about the top 200 results here... if it's so important, there should've been a downloadable version or something.

[Will @ Nov 21st 2007 8:33PM]

Anyone think these people just can't accept that they passed some crappy DNA to their kids and are just out for someone to blame?
The MMR vaccine never did me any harm, but one crackpot doctor and some parents stupid enough to believe him and the inoculation rate plummets putting kids at risk of viruses we practically eradicated 50 years ago. Instead of your child 'potentially' getting autism, your and other little darlings are in hospital with serious illnesses.

Do you think there ought to be a minimum IQ level for people to have kids?

Man this is such a blow off. lol

[MastrCake @ Nov 21st 2007 8:34PM]

I have Asperger's Syndrome (a variant of autism). I am 16 years old, and I honestly don't see how WiFi could have a link, especially since WiFi wasn't really around when I was born. This study, in my opinion, is bogus. Especially since my grandmother and cousin (most likely) have it as well, which points toward heredity. I don't believe this study one bit (this coming from an autistic person).

[Tired_ @ Nov 21st 2007 9:08PM]

@MastrCake: I think they're trying to say that more people have it now that wifi is so common. I disagree with that, but I think that's what they're saying.

[Static @ Nov 21st 2007 8:50PM]

Cancer has been around for quite sometime. Historically, it is mentioned as far back as texts attributed to Hippocrates.
One of the reasons that we are seeing more cancer in the last 80 years is due to the almost doubling of lifespans during that time frame. Most cancers have been linked with heredity and/or environmental exposures. Nothing you can do about your heredity. Environmental exposures are typically cumulative. Give someone more of a cancer causing substance, and you expect to see the cancer rate go up.
Some of these environmental causes have also been shown to be more likely to express as you live longer. This stands to reason. If you die of a staph infection at the age of forty, then the cancer that you're predisposed to doesn't have enough time to manifest itself.
End results: Cancer rates have gone up, both in total numbers, and per population count. So has the number of airplanes, cars, and exotic pets.

[FRiC @ Nov 21st 2007 8:53PM]

http://www.acnem.org/

[Will Merydith @ Nov 21st 2007 9:22PM]

There was a time when x-rays were used in shoe stores.

[AJ in the East Bay @ Nov 21st 2007 9:32PM]

For what, may I ask?

[Will Merydith @ Nov 21st 2007 9:36PM]

To measure your foot.

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/shoefittingfluor/shoe.htm

I'm not saying WiFi is harmful, but I find it funny that everyone reacts so definitely that it is safe, when we continually develop technologies, embrace them and then later shun them as damaging or undesirable for some reason or another.

[ShogunMaster @ Nov 21st 2007 9:44PM]

WOW!!

Who knew that Treo's only reason for not having WIFI was to save our lives! Thanks Palm, and I think we all owe you a huge appology for calling you out of date for lacking this deadly feature.

Sadly I have an HTC Tytn that has Wifi, so I best go sniff Cocaine and screw hookers while I still have a few days of life left in me...

[Simon @ Nov 21st 2007 9:49PM]

In other news:
Glasses linked to bad eyesight

what a load of bs

[Xaderth @ Nov 23rd 2007 5:56AM]

Actually... Glasses "correct" poor vision, not "fix" it.
Glasses *DO* cause your vision to get worse (hence having to go get a new set of lenses made every couple of years). Your eyes get "lazier" because the lenses are doing all of the focusing for them. The only way to "fix" your vision is to get corrective surgery.

[Simon @ Nov 22nd 2007 5:04PM]

Sheesh. Way to *NOT* notice sarcasm.

The point is, they don't CAUSE bad eyesight in the FIRST PLACE.

[Andrew Benskey @ Nov 21st 2007 10:31PM]

I guess I'm the only one who thinks this is possible. Look at it this way. A few years ago, who even heard of the word autism. And Wi-fi hasn't been around for too long. I'm worried that some technology, even though I love it, maybe somehow linked. I wonder if we all just don't want to hear it. I know I don't.

[Jef @ Nov 21st 2007 11:00PM]

Ever heard of a microwave? How about a oordless phone? Now tell me again how WiFi is being correlated with autsm.

Granted phnes haven't always been 2.4 GHz, but that band was in use well before WiFi came along.

[pepper @ Nov 21st 2007 11:41PM]

you do reaize there are different metals in your body all the time right? they dont mean a big chunk of steel will come flying through your skull. what they are saying is that it will make them accumulate in your brain. i'm not saying i believe wifi is making this happen, only that there are metals in the blood around your brain right now, you make it sound like it is impossible for it to stay there.

[johnathon @ Nov 21st 2007 11:50PM]

This has to be total bs.

has there been an increase in autism since the advent of Wifi.
If so, can it be directly tied to Wifi.
Too many variables here for me and as someone with HFA, I'm not quite sure how to go about doing this.

[Blah @ Nov 22nd 2007 12:01AM]

There is a higher incidence of autism in places like Silicon Valley where there is a high population of computer programmers and such. Some theorize that same genes that draw people to sitting in front of a computer doing the same thing for hours on end also leads to autism in their children.

Maybe its just that the parents of autistic kids are more likely to have Wifi because they're highly computer literate, instead of the Wifi being the direct causative agent...

Or maybe I'm just reaching...

[AtroPunk @ Nov 22nd 2007 12:38AM]

Why do you even bother write this crap? This is not "the Onion", this is Engadget, a tech blog about real things, not made up science. I am about tired of conspiracy, commie, crybaby, pseudo-science from some of the articles on engadget and especially digg. It is truly sickening how something so cool as engadget can be dumbed down so easily by a few articles here and there that are just ludicrous. Ban these bloggers, have them go write MST3K episodes or something, being as they are so very clever.