Scientists Call For A Halt to Google Expeditions Program Because of "Unsafe Microwave Exposure to Brain and Eyes"

Virtual Reality with Smartphone and Cardboard Could Risk Children's Health

"Placing a two-way microwave radiating device directly in front of young eyes is not a wise choice in my opinion.”

Montgomery County Schools brought this program to students last month! 

Environmental Health Trust (EHT) scientists are calling on Google to stop the spread into schools of wireless virtual reality system Global Expeditions Pioneer Program where middle-school children hold a cell phone encased in a cardboard box in front of their eyes to take virtual expeditions to Mars, the moon, and other special places.

“Two-way microwave radiation transceivers, in the form of Smartphones, should not be used directly in front of children’s eyes and brains,” cautions University of Utah Distinguished Prof. Om Gandhi, who is one of the original developers of testing to evaluate wireless radiation from cellphones and is a Senior Advisor to EHT.

Prof. Gandhi added, “We have never tested microwave radiating devices directly in front of the young developing eye. The absence of proof of harm at this point does not mean that we have evidence of safety.”

“We want to know why is Google encouraging young children to employ a technology that has never been tested for their use when Samsung has a similar system that explicitly advises that no child under the age of 13 should be using it,” asks Devra Davis, President of EHT, and Visiting Professor of Ondokuz Mayis University Medical School and The Hebrew University Hadassah Medical Center.

EHT collaborating scientist, Professor Claudio Fernandez from the federal university of Canoas, Brazil, used cutting-edge modeling and found that radiation from the virtual reality applied wireless phones could easily exceed levels tested on adults.

“When we began to model cellphone exposures in the brains of toddlers and young children, I never imagined we would see these sorts of uses with devices placed directly in front of the eye and close to the brain,” noted Professor Claudio Fernandez,  whose research employs anatomically-based models of children to modeling cellphone absorption.

Dr. Mary Redmayne, a researcher at Monash University in Australia and EHT Advisor, adds that “Children’s brains are not fully myelinated and eyes absorb radiation readily due to their high water content. Placing a two-way microwave radiating device directly in front of young eyes is not a wise choice in my opinion.”

Read EHT's Full Post With Scientific Data Here.
Download Slides of scientific imaging here.