Technology Allergy or just Crazy?

Straight from the "bang my head against the wall" department comes this story about retarded... oh, I'm sorry, disabled people in Santa Fe. A group has banned together to try to stop Wi-Fi in public spaces because they experience negative physical symptoms they attribute to the electromagnetic field.

I swear, you can't make this stuff up.

The group is claiming that they have "EHS" or electromagnetic hypersensitivity which makes them sensitive to Wi-Fi and the electromagnetic field that they generate. Never mind that there isn't a city in the nation that isn't blanketed in wireless signals. Never mind that myriad of devices that they have used for years emanate the same energy without any adverse physical effects. Makes me wonder what they do when they go to their friends houses (assuming they have friends which at this point is dubious) with cordless phones since they operate on the same frequency. The group plans on fighting Santa Fe's proposal for Wi-Fi hot spots in public places, claiming that it is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Which just reinforces my argument that we need an "Americans without High Speed Wireless Internet Act."

According to the World Health Organization, EHS "is not a medical diagnosis, nor is it clear that it represents a single medical problem." Basically it doesn't exist.

Arthur Firstenberg, the leader of this little group told a local TV station "If I walk into a room of a building that has Wi-Fi, my most immediate sign is that the front of my right thigh goes numb. If I don't leave, I'll get short of breath, chest pains and the numbness will spread." This sounds remarkably like a combination of a minor panic attack or perhaps some sort sort of somatoform disorder.

From the WHO website: "Some members of the public have attributed a diffuse collection of symptoms to low levels of exposure to electromagnetic fields at home. Reported symptoms include headaches, anxiety, suicide and depression, nausea, fatigue and loss of libido. To date, scientific evidence does not support a link between these symptoms and exposure to electromagnetic fields. At least some of these health problems may be caused by noise or other factors in the environment, or by anxiety related to the presence of new technologies."

Come on people, lets get real. Let's just call this what it is - Technophobia. These weird waves bouncing around the world have some people freaked out which is sort of natural. The same thing happened when electricity came on the scene, cars, airplanes... you name it. But a few minutes of Google searching would tell you that there is no way and electromagnetic wave can affect you in this way. Wait, they don't have the internet... um... O, then head to the library... wait, they usually have computers so that won't work. Ok, so they can call one of their friends and have them go to the library for them... unless you have a cordless or cell phone and then you'll have to use a messenger pigeon or smoke signals or something.

The thing that bothers me is not that there are crazy people in the world - I live in the South, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a crazy person. Plus I've lived in Los Angeles which is WAY worse. No, the problem here is that we are already trailing most of the rest of the world in our high speed Internet, what we don't need is a bunch of crazies messing it up any more. I've got an idea, if it is bothering you so much, why don't you make yourself a foil hat (or foil suit if that is what it takes.

The real problem is that the complaint is not against a private organization but the government. Any private organization would call their lawyers, explain the problem, and after the laugher subsided continue with the project. Unfortunately, that isn't how the government works. This could hold up the creation of Wi-Fi Hotspots around Santa Fe for years - all because of the fear of litigation. Maybe Santa Fe should give Kurt Denke a call and see what he thinks. He's use to crushing frivolous suits under his heal.

But perhaps, I should give these people a break. This is pretty easy to test, just stick the lot of them in a room and switch on and off a Wi-Fi transmitter. If they all say "ouch" at the same time, it's a real thing. Better yet, make that room on a boat and float them out to the Isle of Crazy where they all belong. There they can live in live in peace and harmony free from all electromagnetic sources like Wi-Fi, cell phones, microwaves, power lines, and more. This island will have to be far away from anywhere that has thunderstorms since those are full of EMF as well. Hmm... that may be a problem. Of course, they aren't going to be interested in "proving" anything. Their 15 minutes isn't up yet.