Panorama is bad science

PANORAMA'S recent documentary on wi-fi managed to get them chucked out of a school for performing bad science.

A teacher got in touch with a Guardian hack to telling him he had expelled a Panorama film crew because of the bad science they were carrying out on wi-fi.

This show was on the suppressed dangers of radiation from wi-fi networks. The show had panorama hack carrying a detector around a school which showed that 'radiation' was in red for most of the time. What Panorama didn't tell you was that its detector was built from scratch and built by Alasdair Philips of Powerwatch, the man who leads the campaign against wi-fi. He decided how much radiation it would take to send his machine into the red zone.

Panaroma failed to reveal that were Philips, who makes £175 for each of the detectors he flogs to worried parents, or his detector's came from.

The teacher said that they showed up on his doorstep wanting to to take some measurements in his class room, compare them to the radiation from a phone mast and film some kids using wireless laptops.

While they were doing that the teacher googled the name of Philips who does a natty line in radiation shielding for your windows and special shielding paint for your house. He even flogs an insulation mesh beekeeper hat to protect your head from microwave exposure.

The tests were based around downloading the biggest file they could get hold of and taking a peak reading. However as the kids pointed out, they were not allowed to download big files and only a few classes had wi-fi. Laptops are only used a couple of weeks. Hardly enough to get any radiation.

Another expert used in the programme was Olle Johansson who after many years of public assertions and cocksure, blatant warnings of numerous negative health effects allegedly caused by electromagnetic fields was awarded the title "Misleader of the year 2004" by his fellow boffins. More here. µ