Feeling Queasy? Wi-Fi ‘Sickness’ Allegedly Affects 5 Percent of Population
- Posted on September 14, 2011 at 6:50am by
Liz Klimas
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Some people can’t live without wireless — most in the modern world probably would classify themselves in this category. But, there are those on the flip side who can’t even live around Wi-Fi. Seriously.
According to BBC News (via Popular Science), at least 5 percent of Americans are reporting they believe they suffer Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity, or EHS, which is not medically recognized in the United States. Symptoms include headaches, burning skin, muscle twitching and other chronic pain.
The BBC interviewed Diane Schou who said she had become a “technological leper” when she was around other people, having to avoid society and its technological devices. Before moving to a “radio quiet zone” in Green Bank, West Virginia, Schou’s husband built her Faraday Cage, an insulated box that could protect her from the electromagnetic fields created by Wi-Fi and other devices.
Diane Schou moved from her Iowa farm to West Virginia to escape radio waves that were plaguing her. (Photo: BBC)
The BBC has more:
“My face turns red, I get a headache, my vision changes, and it hurts to think. Last time [I was exposed] I started getting chest pains – and to me that’s becoming life-threatening,” Ms. Schou says.
Diane spent much of her time inside it, sleeping on a twin mattress on a plywood base.
“At least I could see my husband on the outside, I could talk to him,” she says.
Green Bank only has 143 residents. It is one of the few areas in the United States where wireless use of any kind is banned — the National Radio Quiet Zone:
“Living here allows me to be more of a normal person. I can be outdoors. I don’t have to stay hidden in a Faraday Cage,” she says.
“I can see the sunrise, I can see the stars at night, and I can be in the rain.
“Here in Green Bank allows me to be with people. People here do not carry cell phones so I can socialise.
The National Radio Quiet Zone’s primary function is not a safe haven for those suffering with EHS. It was established in 1958 to minimize possible harmful interference to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank and the U.S. Naval Facilities in Sugar Grove, West Virginia.
Coverage of the National Radio Quiet Zone in West Virginia
BBC reports that both CTIA — the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry — and the World Health Organization say that EHS does not have a clear link to wireless technology. Although, research at Louisiana State University shows that low-frequency electromagnetic fields can cause EHS.
Nichols Fox, 70, echoed the skepticism expressed by some health officials until she began feeling the pain herself, according to BBC:
“Towards the end of my normal life when I still could watch television I could actually cut my pain off and on with the remote control device,” she says. “It was such an enormously clear association there was just no denying it.”
As of 2010, Popular Science writes in an earlier article, Sweden is the only country the formally acknowledging EHS as a disease associated with electromagnetic fields.
[H/T Popular Science]
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Comments (58)
inferno
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 3:02pmI would like to make a prediction. Suppose congress should outlaw wireless communication. My prediction: A largre number of people would suffer from wireless withdrawl. They would then be allowed to unionize, and pay dues. The union leaders would fund Progessive candidates, using member dues to elect favorable politicians. Those affected would be declared a minority, be given special rights, which can’t be found in our Constitution, in turn Obama would declare them to be a national disaster, making them eligible for FEMA assistance. And so on, and so on………..
Report Post »Rapunzel
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 1:46pmIn high school, I had a friend with epilepsy who had strange things happen with electrical devices. They would always eventually fail – wristwatches, stereos, you name it. So there could be *something* to it.
Report Post »babylonvi
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 1:43pmGood thinking on the pare of her husband(”husband built her Faraday Cage,”) ’cause that’s where she belongs. Most likely the problems these folks have are from sitting in front of the computer all day(first hand experience on that one) and going around all day with the phone glued to their year.
Report Post »swehes
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 1:18pmI had read about this before. Especially in Sweden. A woman could have no electricity in the house. And no cellphones or other radio. Another case was two men who had been working and using cellphones for a long time. The one guy went blind on one eye and the other guy had reduced eyesight on one eye. The thing they had in common was they were always talking on the phone. But it is a hard area to study as you need to study people over a 20 year period and use people who always talk on their phone or using the phone in close proximity to their bodies and see what it does. You should also read Apple’s disclaimer on how far you should keep the phone from your head when talking and where to have the phone when you are carrying it around. Not to mention FCCs testing procedures for how far they keep the phone from the body to test the radio strength from the phones and other mobile devices.
Report Post »TN_Techie
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 12:38pmThis is stupid. My mom is just like this with Soy products, believes she has it so much that anytime she suspects she has been exposed to it she “Gets Sick”. Give her pure soy and as long as she never suspects anything she is fine, this has been confirmed by me and other family members multiple times. She still holds to her psychosomatic illness and won’t listen to reason. Same thing here. The 2.4GHz band that WiFi uses has been used for hundreds of years. There is no difference between a WiFi Router and several other types of radio control equipment that also use the 2.4 GHz band range. remote control of toys, gas powered RC cars, remote controlled aircraft, and portable phones. This “illness” simply stems from a fear and misunderstanding of how technology works as well as misplaced blame for symptoms which may or may not be made up but in any case are attributed to something that is not in any way related to the actual cause.
Report Post »forgedin43
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 2:56pmAm personally on the safe side of the emf fence. Better safe than sorry! Big question is, was it space aliens using the 2.4 GHZ band for “hundreds” of years? Am more inclined to think perhaps “tens” or “scores” of years would be less apt to garner ridicule.
Report Post »ByDawnsEarlyLight
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 11:22amok although in principle I may agree with some of your comments. I find it Very disturbing that you slip your mom soy products just to stroke your own sense of correctness. I feel sorry for your mom who apparently has a stress reaction to soy products for whatever reason, and her family’s solution is to feed her soy so they can laugh behind her back. Shame On You and everyone in your family who has participated in that in cruel act with you.
Report Post »homekeeper
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 12:13pmNot sure about wifi causing these issues but I do know that I can’t use bluetooth. When I got my first bluetooth I started having these debilitating headaches and it didn’t take long to realize it was from the bluetooth. When I stopped using it, they went away. I no longer use bluetooth and no longer have those headaches. A doctor did say that bluetooth device is not to touch your body and its supposed to so far away from your body but who follows that these days?
Report Post »SiY11
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 5:58pm@HOMEKEEPER
LOL Bluetooth is 2.4ghz!!!!
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 12:08pmI am highly doubtful / skeptical.
Look into it, sure, but my initial reaction is that people are paranoid.
Why is it more prevalent today?
Mass communications and the rate at which new technology is released.
People are often afraid of that which they do not understand.
That is natural.
Education and/or experience usually alleviates those apprehensions.
Research it, but, don’t spend tax dollars on it.
Report Post »loveliberty83
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 11:37amI am sure you all know that seizures have occurred from playing video games also if you have kids there personality changes . If you take the games away they come back to their old personality -who knows if it is what that causes this but I believe all things in moderation-some beleive many diseases are accerated by electrical wires near peoples homes-lets be more open minded do some research yourself
Report Post »VigilanceisFreedom
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:57amDitto Johnt998 “I’m skeptical but open minded, let’s do this test and know once and for all if EMF actually causes EHS symptoms. We have the perfect subjects here since they claim the symptoms are almost immediate and easily reproducible.”
If it turns out these people are only responding to their AWARENESS of the magnetic fields, then these cases are probably psychosomatic responses. I tend to lean towards this explanation myself. But imagined or not, this is something diminishing quality of life for these people, and they need physical or psychological treatment in order to live more complete lives.
I really don‘t put much stock in the idea that we’re all being messed up by wifi, but who knows really?
Whether it is true or not, news stories like this one will be used by those who want to control your life. Imagine the devastating effect on business if suddenly wifi networks were deemed “too unsafe” to use at places of employment? We’ve all seen the slippery slope that junk science leads to. How about radio waves? Unsafe! Satellite radio? Unsafe!
Report Post »SYNJUNSMYTHE
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:54amI have found the answer to all these electromagnetic fields problems… Glenn you should have thought of this……http://zapatopi.net/afdb/
Report Post »The cable guy
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:46amSince cordless phones used these frequency long before wifi did I would think these people would have been affected long ago. Maybe they just need to wrap there heads in aluminum foil. Think it just another way for someone to try to get money they don’t deserve.
Report Post »mossbrain
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:25amJust another make believe malady for scam artists to suck more money out of us, just like the lady who was getting rich selling natural cleaning products after she scared moms into believing that household cleaners like amonia were harming their children.
I wonder when Al Gore will jump onto this bandwagon.
Report Post »kedward
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:01amWhales are affected by very low frequency emissions. More study on wireless and other EM sources as relating to health, should to be done, because use is increasing.
Report Post »drattastic
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 11:00amI love technology but could this be why people are nuts these days ? Just saying
Report Post »Sayre
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:00amI know, I know… even hypochondriacs have to die of something, or at the very least, develop some socially acceptable allergy to spice up there boring lives… how do they spell mediocre. Politically correct allergies (cigarette smoke, cats, personal responsibility, and now wifi signals?) are often the primary symptom of lead or mercury poisoning or an over exposure to liberal ideology resulting in a chilling effect on one’s personal IQ. Oh well… the ride goes on…
Report Post »bread and circuses
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:05amyour IQ was definitely affected you moved down from moron
Report Post »deeberj
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:16amCats are a politically correct allergy? I don’t understand. I can‘t breathe when I’m around cats, but I’m certainly not looking for a PC allergy.
Report Post »rfycom
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:57amIt’s the sucking of naked movies and pictures over the WiFi that is doing it. It usually happens right after church on Sunday.
Report Post »bread and circuses
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:59amyou must be speaking from personal experience
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:40amThey don’t need a new medical term for this illness, the old one works just fine…hypochondriac.
Report Post »bread and circuses
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:45amLOL, is your ignorance a contagious disease ?
Report Post »bread and circuses
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:57amArchie Bunker was a genius compared to you
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:10amIt was a joke, get over it. The symptoms sounded like my menopausal symptoms, except they didn’t list night sweats.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:19ambread and circuses
Report Post »Get away from your laptop, the wifi is making you ill and you’re making me sick.
mossbrain
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:22amYou are right Gonzo.
Report Post »oldestgenxer
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:33amIt just reminds me–this and the story about “Never mind electric Cars, here come electric roads”–of one of my favorite science fiction writers.
Robert Heinlein wrote some stories in the 1940s. One was called “The Roads Must Roll.” Silly pulp, but it predicted the urban sprawl–and electric roads.
And a story called “Waldo” had some elements of magic in it, but one of the themes in it was people getting sicker and weaker from all the EM waves we produce.
BTW, Heinlein also described in detail the waterbed in a book, which is why there is no patent on it today. Anyone can make one. And remote manipulator arms are called Waldoes, first described in the story. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_manipulator)
My point is this: in the early days of atomics, they didn’t know radiation was dangerous. Just because we don‘t have the means at this moment in time to measure it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. What about the increase in the last several decades of ADD and things like that? Over-diagnosis aside, something is happening.
Report Post »Quit trying to overthink what comes to you intuitively. There’s a reason for it.
bread and circuses
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:21amIt’s only morons who ridicule the things they do not understand.
The human brain operates on electrical impulses, why do some idiots dismiss the possibility of some ppl having a sensitivity to other forms of electronic radiation ?
What I didn’t see in the article is that none of those ppl were asking for government help, they dealt with their own problems.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:23amI bet a liberal cook like you would like Obama to spend a trillion or two on medical research to cure all these poor people from their paranoia. You should tell them how well your tin foil hat works and save us all some money.
Report Post »randy
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:16amWhaddya wanna bet EHS only affects old hippies?
Report Post »johnt998
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:53amOops, I posted a reply to NUFFSAID instead of creating a separate post. Let’s also test for idiot internet posters :-)
Report Post »johnt998
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:54amHere’s my original post:
Anyone hear of the scientific method? It’s been doing cool things for about 500 years. Why not take a few of these people complaining of “instant” EHS symptoms like Diane Schou and Nichols Fox and expose them to 20 different sources of “possible” EMF energy. It’s double blind, neither the test subject nor the tester knows which of them actually contains EMF energy. Ask the subjects which sources cause discomfort, then see if their answers correlate with the sources that actually contained EMF energy. I’m skeptical but open minded, let’s do this test and know once and for all if EMF actually causes EHS symptoms. We have the perfect subjects here since they claim the symptoms are almost immediate and easily reproducible.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:13amYou can’t expect liberals to do a double blind test, they can’t skew the results.
But, that said, I do believe it is possible for some people to be sensitive to almost anything. For a long time, they didn’t recognize fibromyalgia. or cronic fatigue syndrome.
Report Post »AlansTigg
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:27amhypersensitivy to EM fields are actually credited with causing lots of “paranormal” experiences….guess the energy makes you feel like there is a presence watching you
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:25amSmoebody has been watching Ghost Hunters. :-)
Report Post »stinkybisquit
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:21amI‘m assumeing they took her photo with a circa 1970’s manual camera, since a digital camera, or even a folm camera with a battery powered exposure meter would produce emf.
Report Post »stinkybisquit
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:22amApologies for the horrible typing. I have high tension lines nearby.
Report Post »deeberj
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:21amStinky, I know you are joking about high power lines, but have you ever lived near them? I did, and when I took my daily walk I was right under them and I could feel something in my body from being so close. I can’t explain how it felt, but I didn’t like it and changed my walking route to avoid them. Our bodies do operate electrically, so why is it so weird to think that electric or EHS could affect us.
Report Post »Duck and cover
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 3:56pmActually, Grab a florecent light bulb (long white things…) and walk under the high power lines, bigger the lines the better. It lights up!!! try it!
Report Post »stinkybisquit
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:44pmYes, I lived in an old farm house, with them running about 50 yards away. It creeped the heck out of me.
Report Post »MotoLeo2
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:19amThese articles were written on the Blaze previously about “smart electric meters” they want to, and are
installing them on every house in this country. They are all going to all send out the same type of electro- mechanical radation. I don’t know if I buy totally into it but once these things are installed on all the houses / businesses in the USA. The way we rush into everything and 5 years down the road find it harmful makes me think when I hear these things.
Just one guy’s thoughts….
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd507.htm
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd508.htm
DT
Report Post »GodHatesFigs
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:01amMaybe they should take a homeopathic remedy. A fake cure for a fake illness. Like cures like, right
Report Post »NuffSaid
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:00amHold on, Call the the DOJn Otify the Dept of labor, memo tothe Black Caucus- Capitalism is crippling the work force!
“I won’t be coming into work today, I got wi – fied while I was drinking my Mac-Latte.”
Report Post »johnt998
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:51amAnyone hear of the scientific method? It’s been doing cool things for about 500 years. Why not take a few of these people complaining of “instant” EHS symptoms like Diane Schou and Nichols Fox and expose them to 20 different sources of “possible” EMF energy. It’s double blind, neither the test subject nor the tester knows which of them actually contains EMF energy. Ask the subjects which sources cause discomfort, then see if their answers correlate with the sources that actually contained EMF energy. I’m skeptical but open minded, let’s do this test and know once and for all if EMF actually causes EHS symptoms. We have the perfect subjects here since they claim the symptoms are almost immediate and easily reproducible.
Report Post »Zeb
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 3:13pm90 % of our homes have a built in or easily accessible Faraday Cage
Report Post »johnt998, I AM WITH YOU let’s do this test and know once and for all if EMF actually causes EHS
If you have a headache and think it may be caused by EHS. stick your head in the closest home microwave unit and see if your headache goes away. If you don’t think there is such a thing as EHS
you might want try bypassing the safety circuit on the door latch placing say 1 min. on the front panel
and punching the on button with your head in a similar position. It will show you why there is such a thing as a lib-tard. like NUFFSAID ‘ NUFFSAID’