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English DJ Claims Wi-Fi Allergy

Posted by samzenpus on from the TV-gives-me-hives dept.

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."

19 of 515 comments (clear)

  1. Crazy people by Hatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Crazy people are everywhere. Stop giving them attention.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    1. Re:Crazy people by adonoman · · Score: 5, Informative

      Most people with decent hearing find TV aisles uncomfortable - it's either too many random TVs putting out the same audio minutely out of synch, or the high-pitched squeal that comes from any CRT being multiplied by a couple dozen. The EMF signals are hardly the most irritating thing that a TV can put out.

    2. Re:Crazy people by amliebsch · · Score: 5, Informative

      Personally, I'll start taking it seriously when at least one so-called sufferer can reliably report the appearance or disappearance of his symptoms in coordination with a randomly cycled emf source in a credible, double-blind experiment.

      --
      If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
    3. Re:Crazy people by canajin56 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, they've tested it many times. No correlation found. The way they tested it was easy. They wheeled a scary looking device covered in antennas, and the people reacted in pain whenever the green light came on. The only trouble is, it was a big inert piece of metal. The only electronics in it were, well, the LED to show it was "on". Meanwhile, under the dropped ceiling there was an actual massive wifi antenna that would randomly blanket the room in "evil radiation", and they were completely unaware. In other words, they only react to wifi at all if they "know" it's there, even when it isn't.

      --
      ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
    4. Re:Crazy people by samkass · · 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.

      --
      E pluribus unum
    5. Re:Crazy people by kheldan · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's not the CRT that makes the noise, it's the flyback transformer, which is being driven by the horizontal sweep oscillator, which is oscillating 15750Hz.

      --
      Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    6. Re:Crazy people by ThatsNotFunny · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't mock people with LED allergies!

      --
      "Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
    7. Re:Crazy people by Meumeu · · Score: 5, Informative
      From wikipedia:

      In 2005, a systematic review looked at the results of 31 experiments testing the role of electromagnetic fields in causing ES. Each of these experiments exposed people who reported electromagnetic hypersensitivity to genuine and sham electromagnetic fields under single- or double-blind conditions.[1] The review concluded that:

      "The symptoms described by 'electromagnetic hypersensitivity' sufferers can be severe and are sometimes disabling. However, it has proved difficult to show under blind conditions that exposure to electromagnetic fields can trigger these symptoms. This suggests that 'electromagnetic hypersensitivity' is unrelated to the presence of electromagnetic fields, although more research into this phenomenon is required."

      Seven studies were found which did report an association, while 24 could not find any association with electromagnetic fields. However, of the seven positive studies, two could not be replicated even by the original authors, three had serious methodological shortcomings, and the final two presented contradictory results. Since then, several more double-blind experiments have been published, each of which has suggested that 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.

    8. Re:Crazy people by luder · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Agreed. There was a case on my university that I found very interesting.

      We have access points (AP) distributed all around the campus, meaning we get wireless connectivity pretty much everywhere. One particular AP was located inside a small room used by janitors, adjacent to an interior garden. Being inside a room, it was safe from the weather and would still provide coverage for the area.

      However, one day, one of the janitors complained she was getting headaches, and claimed that the AP was the culprit. The network managers, skeptical of it, decided to test her theory and switched off it's radio interface, not telling her anything about it. Although the AP stopped emitting radio waves, the status LED and Ethernet LED still blinked constantly. For the common person, not familiar with network devices, that is enough to assume the access point is working as usual.

      Unsurprisingly, the headaches didn't go away and the whining continued. Despite the technical expertise and scientific knowledge of the network staff, the school directors decided to ignore all of the advisory they provided and sided with the janitor, ordering for the AP to be moved out of the janitor's room.

      Now, the funny thing is that they moved the access point around two meters from the original position, so that it was on the other side of the wall, enclosed on an opaque, weather resistant box. Radio interface was brought up and then, mysteriously, the headaches went away...

    9. Re:Crazy people by UncleTogie · · 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...

      --
      Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
  2. I'm allergic to BS by burtosis · · Score: 5, Funny

    And I got a nasty rash just reading the summary.

    1. Re:I'm allergic to BS by fridaynightsmoke · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm allergic to BS.. And I got a nasty rash just reading the summary.

      For the love of god; DON'T CLICK ON THE DAILY MAIL LINK!
      There's levels of BS on there that scientists haven't yet been able to measure.

      --
      This is a substitute for a clever sig that fits within the maximum number of characters.
  3. Steve Miller allergic to Wi-Fi? by hal2814 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some people call him the space cowboy
    Some people call him the gangster of love
    Some people call him Maurice
    Because he has to stay in a Faraday cage to block out the wi-fi signals he's allergic to...

  4. Re:Easy to test by Reziac · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This comment following TFA says it all:
    =====
    The problem with this claim is that WiFi uses the 2.4 gigahertz frequency spectrum along with Bluetooth phones, cordless home phones, and just about any other consumer wireless device. If he really had an 'allergy' like that, he wouldn't have been able to leave his house for the past 15 years. He should try to promote himself a different way than this.

    - Dr. Black, Los Angeles, CA, 24/7/2009 14:30
    =====

    Not to mention that cosmic radiation doesn't conveniently omit some portion of the EM spectrum. Has he ever been outdoors??

    There have always been people who claim that some particular class of witchcraft is making their lives hell. In days of yore it was the evil eye; during the hippie era it was Bad Vibes; today it's some portion of the EM spectrum, because that's the Newly Widespread Thing That We Know Is There But Can't See, So It Must Be Causing Our Ills.

    Crank these people's tinfoil hats one notch tighter, and they'll claim it's thoughtwaves from aliens instead. Oh wait, we've already had that one!!

    --
    ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  5. Hold on... by Aphoxema · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just because it's all in someone's head doesn't mean they aren't suffering from it.

    --
    "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
  6. Re:Easy to test by Dmala · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm embarrassed to say that I've experienced this. I was horrified to learn that they were installing a cell tower on top of an apartment building I was living in at the time. The day it was supposed to go online, I could "feel" it; I started getting dizzy and nauseous going up in the elevator. A few weeks later, I learned that there was a delay and they hadn't even powered the thing up until a week later. Fortunately, finding this out "cured" me of what was essentially a phobia and I haven't had a problem since.

  7. I know what he needs by SilverHatHacker · · Score: 5, Funny

    He needs one of these. So he can always tell when he's in danger.

    --
    Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
  8. Re:Easy to test by commodoresloat · · Score: 5, Funny

    He should try to promote himself a different way than this

    Yeah seriously; he should just start a band and try promoting himself under his own name. Call it the Steve Mill... umm, never mind.

  9. Re:What about Microwave Ovens? by vlm · · 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?

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger