File this under "absurd news stories:" A man in Santa Fe, New Mexico is claiming that his neighbor's use of cell phones, computers and wireless connectivity is causing him to get sick.
Yep, you read that right. Dude #1 is claiming that he suffers from "electromagnetic sensitivity" and that dude #2's wifi signal is really bothering him. So much that he's filing a lawsuit. Oh yeah, and he's been sleeping in his car in the dead of winter. You know, because hotels have WiFi, too.
Dude #1 has doctors notes from over 10 years to backup his condition, despite plenty of scientific studies that suggest electromagnetic sensitivity is a psychosomatic disorder.
We're no stranger to disrespectful neighbors, so we know what a pain it can be to deal with. But we hardly think "using their own wifi" falls under the list of "shitty things neighbors do."
This whole story reads like something from news satire site The Onion. Except it's really happening. Yikes.
(House image: Flickr user seier+seier+seier under license from Creative Commons.)
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Comments (8)
You see stories like this popping up from time to time. It is generally accepted that the people suffering from these symptoms may indeed be feeling what they say they feel, but it has little to do with any kind of radio signal.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_hypersensitivity :
"people who report electromagnetic hypersensitivity are unable to detect the presence of electromagnetic fields and are as likely to report ill health following a sham exposure, as they are following exposure to genuine electromagnetic fields."
Basically, these people have problems, either physical or mental, and they've convinced themselves that wifi is the cause. Show them a router with lights blinking on and off but no wifi signal coming from it, and they get sick. Hide a router in the same room as them with wifi turned on, and they have no idea it's there.
I wonder if this guy realizes that his house is full of electromagnetic fields caused by the wires in his walls. And radio signals. And TV signals. And, oh yeah, the Earth itself has and electromagnetic field.
I hope the judge throws him out and requires him to visit a shrink.
I remember a story like this from Iowa several years ago. The woman involved had moved to a neighbor's barn and wore tinfoil inside of stocking cap to keep the EMF away from her brain (not making this up.) She insisted that an electrical transformer that had been built near her house had made her sick and she could no longer live there.
I actually did a science fair project on EMF way back in middle school, so I've kept a curious eye on the science surrounding it since. I do believe that the scientist who originally claimed that EMF was extremely dangerous admitted a few years later that his entire body of research on the issue was a complete sham.
Actually, we have a similar ongoing story about this in a neighbouring town.
A school recently decided that they didn't want to risk making the pupils sick, so they decided to run ethernet cables throughout the school. They thought it was a great idea, and they said in the newspapers that they minimized the risk of electromagnetic fields hurting the pupils.
The irony, which someone pointed out in the newspaper the next day, was that they were using quite old CRT-screens, which are known for being some of the worst products transmitting electromagnetic fields.
No response from the school though.
On another note, I love that it has been suggested by several studies that this is a physcological disorder. My physics teacher last year insisted that he became sick after using his laptop with WiFi.
the guy (if I remember correctly) was also part a movement of Sante Fe citizens who were trying to get wifi removed from local community and government buildings like the library, city hall, etc.
There have been studies involving people who were told the box in front of them would emit an e-wave when the little light came on. Who would have guessed they would say they felt sick every time that little light came on. When in fact that little LED did nothing but prove them to be liars. And the real e-wave emitter in the ceiling, triggered nothing in them when it turned on at different times.
He should just paint his home with that WiFi blocking paint.
And up his dosage.
lol
that guy will have to move to the countryside XD
the only thing that bothers me about technology is that I can hear it working all the time D: I don't even have an alarm clock in my bedroom because it makes noises, or columns from the computer because they make some kind of weird noise to. D:
is just really sad!
There was actually an article recently about entire communities with higher cancer rates that seemed to correlate to EMFs. Nothing super conclusive, but I don't know if this story is as absurd as you guys believe. The article was titled "Is ‘electrosmog’ harming our health? Electrical pollution from cell phones and WiFi may be hazardous," if you want to read it.