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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Woman Allergic To Microwaves And Mobiles |
| 2007-03-21 |
| For most people talking on a mobile phone, cooking dinner in the microwave or driving in a car is simply part of modern living in 21st century Britain. But completing any such tasks is impossible for Debbie Bird - because she is allergic to modern technology. The 39-year-old is so sensitive to the electromagnetic field (emf) or 'smog' created by computers, mobile phones, microwave ovens and even some cars, that she develops a painful skin rash and her eyelids swell to three times their size if she goes near them. As a consequence, Mrs Bird, a health spa manager, has transformed her home into an EMF-free zone to try and stay healthy. The walls are all covered in special carbon paint, the windows have a protective film on them and she and her husband, Tony, 45, even sleep under a silver-plated mosquito net to deflect the radiowaves. More at link. I'm not making this up. Really. |
| Posted by:Dave D. |
| #16 "...if 1 in 20 in the population are this sensitive to EMF, then it would be really damned obvious by now." And even more obvious over here in the States. IIUC, EU regulations limit the maximum radiated power of things like wireless routers to around 60 milliwatts, whereas here, it's more like 250 mw. So if this "ES" of hers was real, and not just mental*, Americans would be complaining about it in droves. * We'll call it PMS-- Psychomagnetic Syndrome... |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-03-21 18:51 |
| #15 Faraday cage link, here: http://news.thomasnet.com/images/large/459/459490.jpg |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-03-21 18:47 |
| #14 The black paint is doped with conductive carbon particles. The window films are also conductive, like the semi-clear plastic pouches that static sensitive solid state electronic components are packaged in. I was performing ESD tests on integrated circuits back in the early 1980s when the deleterious effects of EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) and ESD posed a huge reliability challenge to IC fabrication lines. All of the conductive products mentioned in the article are designed to thwart electro-static discharge, otherwise known in the IC fab business as ESD. It has zero to do with RF emissions or EMF fields. At the same fab facility we had a very special room. The walls, floor and ceiling were all formed out of panels of solid copper. Each seam was soldered and the doorway had a flexible metal braid gasket around its entire circumference. All of the surfaces were connected by copper wire and copper braid to a large diameter copper rod driven several feet into the ground. This room is known as a Faraday cage. It is the only known way of stopping all intrusion of RF and EMF fields into a given space. The photo of Ms. Bird's house bears no resemblance to a true Faraday cage and is almost guaranteed to be completely ineffective against intercepting RF or EMF signals of any sort. What her house will partially protect her from is someone shuffling their feet on the carpet or doffing a sweater too quickly. And that's about all. I also got my above quote wrong. It should be: "I'm sick and tired of being a hypochondriac." |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-03-21 18:39 |
| #13 I had a prof in college who had lost an eye to standing in the wrong place in respect to an antenna. No, not by getting poked, but by getting hard-boiled. This woman's definitely psychosomatic; if 1 in 20 in the population are this sensitive to EMF, then it would be really damned obvious by now. Hell, the new offices at work have wireless repeaters every 50' or so; with a couple hundred people around, you'd expect a dozen or so people to have problems, right? |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-03-21 17:31 |
| #12 "There is no way that I know of that black carbon paint... is going to cut EM radiation" Yup. I don't care how "special" this "carbon paint" is, it isn't going to do a damn thing to shield against EMFs in any frequency band. And as for that "clear protective film" they've put over their windows, I don't see where it's blocking out very much light-- and if it lets most of the light through it's not going to be doing much to block EMFs, either. "Of course, she'd be perfectly fine within a few minutes after a buttload of attention had been paid to her..." Same here, I'd expect. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-03-21 17:03 |
| #11 I also call BS on this. There is no way that I know of that black carbon paint or using "special films" on wiring is going to cut EM radiation from electrical currents (actually, it'd be a magnetic field, barely detectable within a few inches, that would be generated by an electrical wire - remember your right-hand rule from physics class). Total hypochondria and psychosomatisis - a lot like someone I knew from a class a long time ago who would pass out and go into fake convulsions if she even wiffed a scent of aftershave. Of course, she'd be perfectly fine within a few minutes after a buttload of attention had been paid to her and she never reacted if the same person wearing the same aftershave stood out of her field of vision within 3 ft of her position (we did surreptitious tests). |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-03-21 16:35 |
| #10 "The house was completely re-wired, had clear protective film put on the windows and every wall was painted with black carbon paint, which cost £250 per tin, to deflect the harmful rays." I think I've just figured out a way to get filthy rich making money off hypochondriacs... |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-03-21 16:08 |
| #9 Doctors say there is little scientific evidence to back up a link between EMF and poor health. They claim the symptoms, often attributed to flu or viruses, are psychosomatic. But campaigners disagree. They reckon around 500 people are already being treated for ES and as many as five per cent of the population could be affected. I'm still obliged to call "horseradish" on this. Cell phones have been in use for so long and by so many millions of people that if "as many as five per cent of the population could be affected", the symptoms exhibited by Ms. Bird would be far more common than they are at present. Having worked around strong (5 kilowatt) RF (Radio Frequency) sources and powerful (hundreds of Gauss) magnetic fields for decades, I've never seen myself or anyone else display these sort of symptoms. This despite the fact that the EMF fields I'm referring to far exceed that of a puny cell phone or household microwave. Were EMF "allergy" an actual ailment, there would be hundreds, if not thousands, of Silicon Valley workers filing lawsuits in droves. Most peculiar of all is Ms. Birds swollen eyelids and skin rash. RF fields tend to affect regions of very small blood vessels, known as capillaries. RF fields much more readily affect a person’s eyeballs (not eyelids), brain and internal organs. While they do not mention exactly where Ms. Bird’s skin rash occurs, it could just as easily be a result of exposure to or contact with outgassing chemicals or phthalates used during processing of the plastic used in her cell phone’s body. For that matter, there are innumerable other household chemicals, VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and airborne contaminants that are far more likely culprits. Anti-static dryer sheets, deodorants, cleaning compounds, aerosol room fresheners and a host of other everyday products all pose much more likely allergens or health hazards to Ms. Bird. As I mentioned, far too many people use these devices with little or no side effects. While I always take precautions to minimize my own exposure to EMF as a simple health precaution, this case has far too many anomalies for me to accept such a notion as EMF “allergy”. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-03-21 15:54 |
| #8 Artn a tricky individual thing, but allergic to mobiles? Damn, wait'll you get aload of my stabilez. |
| Posted by: Sandy Calder (ded) 2007-03-21 14:58 |
| #7 Making the Muslimosphere™ allergic to modern technologies -- ha! LOL. And not a bad idea, that! : ) |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2007-03-21 14:52 |
| #6 This all sounds much more effective than the tin-foil hat I wear to work. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-03-21 14:50 |
| #5 ...just think, vaccinations for all the BMW and Volvo driving soccer moms and yuppie-ettes chattering away on their cell phones... Yeah, and maybe we could find a way to infect the entire Muslimosphere™ and make them allergic to modern technology. Should would put a crimp in their plans to Take-Over-the-World™! |
| Posted by: Chiper Threreger8956 2007-03-21 14:44 |
| #4 Quick, can we get some of her blood, have it analyzed and the particular genomes ( or whatever they are) replicated? we can make millions and produce safer roads: just think, vaccinations for all the BMW and Volvo driving soccer moms and yuppie-ettes chattering away on their cell phones instead of paying attention to their driving! |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2007-03-21 14:21 |
| #3 EMFs are already a documented problem for pregnant women, Zenster, so it's not at all outrageous that certain individuals (and she's not the only one -- read article) have developed a sensitivity to them. DUH. Guess you didn't "fix it" after all. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2007-03-21 14:13 |
| #2 Woman Allergic To There, fixed that. All I'm waiting for is this woman being quoted as saying: "I'm sick and tired of being a psychosomatic!" |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-03-21 14:08 |
| #1 That is SO weird, cuz' I feel much better NOT talking on the cell or using the computer . . . glad her symptoms cleared up after the interventions. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2007-03-21 13:56 |