English DJ Claims Wi-Fi Allergy 515
path0$ writes "British Ex-DJ Steve Miller claims that his Wi-Fi allergy is making his life one big misery
, forcing him to live in an iron-clad home far from any neighbors. According to the article, more and more people are suffering from an allergy like his. The only positive side to this is that at least Miller didn't think of suing anybody yet, like these people did,
who claim to suffer from the same condition and were mentioned in a Slashdot article in 2008."
Crazy people (Score:5, Insightful)
Crazy people are everywhere. Stop giving them attention.
Seriously (Score:5, Insightful)
Cordless phones? (Score:5, Insightful)
Headphones, turntables, amps, lights, etc. (Score:1, Insightful)
No EMF there, just that evil wi-fi.
Re:Crazy people (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously, this is 100% psychosomatic.
Put these people in a faraday cage with a WiFi router without being able to see the unit, and have them report when it's on/off, double-blind the test and report and see if they're more than 60% reliable over a good number of tests. We'll see if it's real.
Re:It's still real... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Crazy people (Score:5, Insightful)
Or... you know... the stuff that they're actually playing on the TVs...
why does he need a 'wi-fi detector'? (Score:3, Insightful)
"Steve navigates normal daily chores with the help of a âwi-fi detectorâ(TM) which spots areas he should avoid."
Let's see, if someone could sense WIFI why would they need a separate detector??? Hmm...
Lets try to be helpful (Score:5, Insightful)
I've heard of this before, and I've always been skeptical of it. Not because that I think it's impossible for people to absorb electromagnetic radiation, but because the first people to expose me to this sensitivity believed pyramid shaped crystals could fix them. I really blame them for killing all of the credibility this condition may have had with me, but it's their own fault. This always struck me as a powerful example of the placebo effect. People want to feel sick when electromagnetic waves are around them, so they do. I've had a few friends deeply wrapped up in holistic medicine, and you could pick any random ingredient on your soda (anything man made) and they give you a story of how they feel sick when they are in the room with that ingredient.
I'm not going to sit here and bash the people who think they have this symptom. You're going to get 50 posters who have done that thoroughly by now. Instead I'm going to offer them a suggestion. Find a person who exhibits a visible symptom when they're exposed to the types of radiation you object to. If we can take a person and reliably give them a rash with a wifi router, then we're in business. Until then you're...well this lady who had her house covered in tin foil.
"But beneath the coats of magnolia paint, she points out, the walls are lined with a special paper that contains a layer of tin-foil; and upstairs, the windows are hung with a fine, silvery gauze."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-450995/The-woman-needs-veil-protection-modern-life.html [dailymail.co.uk]
Re:Close Mindedness (Score:4, Insightful)
No, we're biased because, to date, double-blind studies done with people who are "WiFi sensitive" have turned up nothing. It is up to the people making the claims to prove their claims. If they are sensitive to WiFi signals, this can be trivially proven by a double-blind experiment. Yet, no-one has produced one.
Re:He can probably earn $1M bucks if legit... (Score:1, Insightful)
He should contact the James Randi foundation for their 1M prize for paranormal proof, as they might very well consider "WiFi sensitivity" paranormal behavior.
It certainly isn't paranormal. Humans are sensitive to many, many types of electromagnetic radiation. UV will burn your skin, visible spectrum is registered by your eyes, too many X-rays can give you cancer, etc.
Many of these effects are not sensed though - your body doesn't feel X-rays. I really, really doubt this guy is sensitive to low-power transmissions in the 2.4 GHz band.
It's also trivially easy to test in a double-blind study.
Re:Crazy people (Score:4, Insightful)
And can he walk outside? Why haven't power lines played havoc with him?
Either the guy is a liar, or he has some mental problems.
Hold on... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just because it's all in someone's head doesn't mean they aren't suffering from it.
Re:Close Mindedness (Score:2, Insightful)
I mean I probably think the guy is a kook, but can any of you really guarantee he is wrong?
Since such a condition is facially implausible, the burden of proof is on you to prove that he is not wrong, particularly because it would be a relatively simple matter to do so.
Re:Crazy people (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder if he has a microwave in his place... or even a bluetooth adapter somewhere.
Or, racks and racks of electronic DJ gear....
Test This Claim: (Score:4, Insightful)
This is an incredibly easy claim to test.
First: See if he can identify when the "Wi-Fi" is on or off.
Second: If he can (which would be highly unlikely and scientifically amazing)... see if he can differentiate between Wi Fi, Bluetooth and his Microwave.
Why do we report bizarre claims to Slashdot without requiring the scientific method to be applied.
If I claim to be psychic and to be able to use ESP to read emails out of thin air, does qualify for the front page of Slashdot?
Re:I'm allergic to BS (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Close Mindedness (Score:3, Insightful)
Birds have been shown to react to magnetism, why not humans?
Sensitivity to magnetic fields are rather important for birds to navigate [alaska.edu], for humans it is not. 99,9999999% of pigeons survive getting dropped from 500 meters above a parking lot, why not humans?
Re:Close Mindedness (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean I probably think the guy is a kook, but can any of you really guarantee he is wrong? No, the history of science is of people being proven wrong. You are all just biased because you love wifi.
Uh-huh. Well I have a pretty solid theory that he's wrong based on the evidence that he has doubtless been bombarded with EM radiation of the same frequency and equal or greater magnitude for years with no complaints due to the vast numbers of other electronic devices and cosmic radiation entering our atmosphere.
So frankly I can't "guarantee" he's wrong (well okay I can -- he's wrong or your money back) but as far as I'm concerned the burden of proof is on you/this kook to give a plausible reason why Wi-Fi is different.
You're just biased against science, and think that because scientists have been shown (by other scientists!) to be wrong in the past means that any random arse thing you make up on the spot with some half-assed casual observation behind it has an equal or greater chance to be true than something studied via the scientific method.
Re:Crazy people (Score:3, Insightful)
Well many syndromes have just been recently identified, for many centuries people suffering from them were considered crazy.
This guy problem might be psychosomatic, but I would be prudent before drawing any conclusion and keep an open mind. Further research on the topic could bring new knowledge. Wi-Fi is pretty new by comparison with man evolution ;-)
Electromagnetic Sensativity (Score:3, Insightful)
Like others, I seriously doubt that the cause of his symptoms have to do with Wi-Fi. One of the the the things not mentioned in the article is whether he has explored other possibilities. The highest concentration of Wi-Fi signals are in urban areas. By its very nature, there are environmental factors tied to urban areas that go hand-in-hand with Wi-Fi. For example, urban areas tend to have higher concentrations of pollution, noise, etc., any one of which, or in combination, could cause his symptoms.
David
Re:Crazy people (Score:3, Insightful)
> Not sure what being around TVs has to do with RF transmission, but hell, if that's your problem, its not like you
> HAVE to go to electrical stores?
Actually, he was referring to the high pitched sound that CRT tubes make. It is quite a bit more noticeable when they show a blank screen than when they show a video. The Sound track of most shows blots it out completely, but there is definitely a high pitched whine from TV sets.
We used to have a TV, if someone watched a movie on the VCR (yes this is going back a bit) and turned off the VCR but not the TV, I could tell that the TV was still on, reliably, from about 2 rooms away. (that one was particularly loud)
These sounds rarely bother me (that TV would bug me, because it was so loud), but I could see someone being sensitive to it, especially to a lot of them together.
Course I have never heard this from an LCD or projection TV, which makes sense. However, I am also 31 now, so my days of hearing that pitch at all may be over soon anyway. Its right up in that range of hearing that most people lose as they get older.
-Steve
Re:Crazy people (Score:5, Insightful)
Crazy people are everywhere. Stop giving them attention.
This attitude is unhelpful.
The symptoms this man describes sound similar to anxiety disorder with agoraphobia. It's not uncommon, and is very treatable with cognitive behavioral therapy and an anti-anxiety medication such as an SSRI. Sufferers of this have physiological symptoms which are subjectively-- and sometimes objectively-- indistinguishable from anything from allergies to more serious medical conditions. The body creates a feedback loop in the endocrine system and the mind assigns causative correlations with anything that was happening at the time. It can result in anything from hot flashes to stuffy noses to a full-on asthma attack.
Calling such a condition "crazy" just exacerbates it, and attention to it is something that has to be managed carefully to try to break the feedback loops.
Disclaimer: I'm not a psychotherapist, just a patient.
Allergies (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Crazy people (Score:2, Insightful)
Reference or it didn't hap...ehh, I actually totally believe you already. Still, a reference would be great so we can spread the word that we are on to you crazy people. Yeah, you know who I am talking about! :-)
Re:What about Microwave Ovens? (Score:5, Insightful)
You must always keep in mind that you are dealing with people suffering from a psychological disorder. Logical arguments means nothing to them; they'll simply ignore what you're saying, or rationalize their behavior in one way or another.
So, you're saying the mysterious wifi allergy disease is actually a religion?
Re:Crazy people (Score:3, Insightful)
Most people with decent hearing find TV aisles uncomfortable
Oddly enough I always find myself turning the CRT off the main TV in my house when I turn the cable box. We have a cable box so turning that off sometimes doesn't turn the TV off.
Now, my girlfriend doesn't notice but when I walk in the room, the sound off the CRT is quit annoying so I want to read a book, I'll walk up to the TV and turn it off.
My girlfriend will always ask me what I am doing turning off a TV that is already off...
Re:Crazy people (Score:5, Insightful)
Hate to play the part of Captain Obvious, but the article you linked to seems to indicate that those "afflicted" react to fake EM fields, too. Not very convincing...
Re:Crazy people (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm glad you pointed this out. I felt just like the grandparent post at first; this guy is a nutcase and should get no sympathy for it. But you make a great point; he really is suffering from his problem, even if it's "all in his head."
I'm currently going through all kinds of medical tests for a problem that feel to me like the onset of a heart attack. It could very well turn out to be "just anxiety." If I am crazy, the pain is no less real, the fear is no less real, and it's not pleasant in any sense. To top it all off, I don't feel particularly stressed or anxious (except, of course, when the pains start and I think I'm dying!)...
My doctors had me run through diagnostics for everything from GERD (acid reflux) to DVT and Pulmonary Embolism... Probably the only thing that keeps me from being a flake like this dude is that I have tried very scientifically to correlate the pains to anything in my life (diet, activity, stress, you name it) and I can't find anything with a strong positive correlation, so I'm stumped... so far, so is the doc.
It sucks to be "mental" -- if it is in fact "just mental." No matter how I've tried to convince myself that it's all in my head and I just need to chill the fuck out, I still experience the pains. I had very little sympathy for people who had psychosomatic problems before this, but now that I'm working on the assumption that my problem is psychosomatic, I find it's not just as easy as telling yourself to get over it.
Of course, I could be wrong and actually have a physical problem that no doctor has yet been able to find... but I doubt it. I've had the stress test, the CT scan, the upper GI, endless EKGs, bloodwork, everything comes back perfectly normal and healthy.
Re:Crazy people (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude, no one disbelieves that EM waves can have an effect on organic tissue. For a much safer and less sarcastic and condescending proof, GO OUT IN THE SUN. I don't believe that low level EM waves can have such a deleterious effect. I also believe that no scientific study has shown any correlation. Finally, I believe that people claiming to have such a condition respond to fake exposure they know about, and do not respond to real exposure they DON'T know about. In conclusion, while I accept the fact that this may possibly have a slight chance of being real, my working hypothesis is that these people are making shit up because they are crazy hypochondriacs.
Re:Crazy people (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, I guess the hungover are also fairly allergic to sunlight.
People wouldn't be able to function in a city if they really were allergic to what they claim they are.
Re:Crazy people (Score:2, Insightful)
Yep. "My brain makes me sick!" would be true whether or not he actually has EM hypersensitivity.
Re:Crazy people (Score:3, Insightful)
His writing is fine. The ability to read attentively is dying, getting drowned out in the sloganeering and partisan tone of forum-speak.