please just move to an island and never return to civilization
September 7th, 2009, 4:09 pmthis is the worst thing i’ve seen in a while. an “initiative to stop wireless, electric, and electromagnetic pollution”. i stumbled upon this letter from google looking for something completely unrelated, and the more i read, the more disgusted i was. the (let me get this out of the way: insane) author of the letter claims she has MCS as well as an allergy to electromagnetic fields (“electrohypersensitivity”, or EHS).
this is the most reprehensible, backwards pseudoscience i’ve ever encountered. i’ve known about the claimed existence of EHS for a long time, but for some reason the presence of a canadian initiative against it bothered me enough to get my thoughts out coherently. let’s compare to something like astrology. there are a whole bunch of people that believe the locations and alignments of planets and stars – millions of miles away – affect humans’ psyches (and ‘fate’) in profound ways, especially relating to where they were on the day you were born. seriously? it’s laughable to any sane person who understands science at an 8th grade level. that’s the difference: something like astrology (or psychics, or scientology, or 2012, or wicca) will never be a possibility in a rational, educated person’s mind.
on the other hand, EHS is kind of plausible if you don’t know much about human bodies and electromagnetic radiation. just the phrase “electromagnetic radiation” is scary to the layman. so, here we go, a concise explanation of radiation and how it’s impossible to become ill from computers and cell phones.
the term ‘radiation’ applies to any form of emitted energy: light that you see, light that gives you a sunburn, all sound, the waves that make your microwave cook, the heat in your toaster, and the topic of these idiots’ moaning, waves from cell phones/computers/radio towers etc. radiation is either ionizing (can strip electrons from atoms and damage cells) or non-ionizing (the vast majority of the electromagnetic spectrum). everything with a wavelength longer than visible light is non-ionizing, which includes infrared, microwave, and radio. ionizing EMF (electromagnetic fields) are the small end of the spectrum, wavelengths shorter than visible light. this includes ultraviolet light, x-rays, and gamma rays. notice how those all sound dangerous? it’s because they are – for real. you might be familiar with ultraviolet light…it gives you sunburns. or x-rays, why you have to wear a lead sheet over your torso when you get an x-ray at the dentist. or gamma rays, a large part of what makes nuclear fallout dangerous. however, since cell phones and computers and satellites and radio towers don’t emit at any of these wavelengths, they’re not important to this discussion.
the other form of ionizing radiation is particles, rather than EMF. alpha particles (helium nuclei), beta particles (protons), and neutrons are all hazardous, and something humans aren’t exposed to in any significant way, barring nuclear accidents.
what about microwave ovens, you say? they’re in the non-ionizing part of the spectrum and they’re dangerous. just because something’s non-ionizing doesn’t make it safe – anything can have enough energy, even at a normally innocuous wavelength, to cause damage. your microwave, your cordless phones, and your laptop all emit at around 2.45GHz, but the laptop (or a wireless access point) will at the very most emit 100mW (one tenth of a watt) and microwaves hang out around a kW (one thousand watts). when you consider the inverse square law that applies to all EMF, the sum of all forms of normal radiation exposure is orders of magnitude lower than a microwave at cooking level.
to put a nail in their lead-lined gold-coated colloidal silver coffin, electromagnetic hypersensitivity has never been detectable in any blind test. i like to believe that this test was only done because science wanted to shut these idiots up, not to actually test for the existence of EHS. to summarize, put people in a room with a cell phone base station and an empty box with a LED on it, the whiny hypochondriacs will say they get a headache when you turn either of them on.
check this self-diagnostic-promoting diagram out, courtesy of the weep initiative:
i think that covers about 95% of all symptoms of everything. no wonder the most gullible attention-seeking hippies choose this as their cause. you could play bingo with episodes of medical dramas using that chart.
the really unfortunate part about trying to sensibly discuss these crazies’ “condition” is their counterarguments. in every experience i’ve had, they predictably respond with something along the lines of “well, i’m just gifted with special senses” or “there are other forms of energy science hasn’t accounted for yet” or “i’m clairvoyant”. they appear to be happy in ignorance and hypocrisy. the hypocrisy is especially entertaining – they preach against technology with no scientific basis, yet use computers and the internet to communicate their misery. it’s like the (topical!) earth liberation front’s recent vandalism of radio towers on the west coast, because “AM radio waves cause adverse health affects including a higher rate of cancer, harm to wildlife, and that the signals have been interfering with home phone and intercom lines.”. why do they even mention the last two items? that undermines their entire argument. the ELF has a whole boatload of propaganda websites – i thought technology was your enemy? off-topic, i love that the ELF spraypaints their messages all around their acts. do you even understand how toxic and polluting spraypaint is.
why do these people invent this condition? they love being victims and crave the associated attention. they’re the same people that go on disability because their back hurts, the same people whose physicians “fire” them after too many home research-related visits, the same people that sense ‘energy’ when they walk into a room or meet someone because they were cursed with supernormal sensitivity. multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is another favorite of the environmental hypochondriac. in the letter linked in the first paragraph, the woman requests that she discuss a potential technician’s product and clothing usage via email before he’s allowed to enter the house. MCS isn’t a valid or recognized medical condition – it’s a less-serious version of EHS. yes, people can be allergic to obscure ingredients in makeup or perfume, but MCS is just a psychosomatic condition (mental illness?) that makes people think they’re going to die because they can smell the vinyl in your shoes.
you can see how strongly i feel about this and all forms of pseudoscience. as stated it’s pretty tough to change the (un)affected’s minds, but aside from the basic benefits of understand how our universe works, it would be very nice to see the “sufferers” get less empathy.
also i went to texas for a week and it was fun and relaxing. except when my plane was leaking hydraulic fluid and we had to divert to nashville.
15 Responses to “please just move to an island and never return to civilization”
September 7th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
MCS isn’t psychosomatic. If you are going to write about MCS you should do some research instead of just parading your ignorance and prejudice.
The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (appointed by Secretary of Veterans Affairs) wrote in their report, ‘Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans’:
“A limited number of studies have investigated possible biological mechanisms underlying MCS. These
have included enhanced neural sensitivity resulting from a time-dependent kindling process elicited by
chemical exposure,50,121,431,1449 a generalized loss of tolerance to chemicals induced by toxic exposures,1043
chronic neurogenic inflammation106,1015 possibly in conjunction with chronic airway
inflammation,358,1016,1017 and behaviorally-conditioned responses to odors.152 Japanese investigators have reported that MCS patients have significantly elevated plasma levels of substance P and other neuroinflammatory mediators, levels that are further increased with exposure to volatile organic compounds.804 Researchers have also suggested that MCS is associated with other immune and neuroendocrine abnormalities, 604,808,891,1014 although none of the proposed biological mechanisms for MCS have been extensively studied.” (pp. 279-280)
and
“As previously described, one study has reported that Gulf War illness is associated with a variant in
position 192 of the PON1 gene, which encodes for paraoxonase, an enzyme involved in neutralizing sarin
and organophosphate pesticides.561 Other studies have reported associations between PON1 enzyme
activity and Gulf War illness or Gulf War service.645,947,1353 Canadian researchers have reported that
women with MCS are significantly more likely than controls to be heterozygous for the PON1 gene at
positions 192 and 55. 1005 These results are consistent with views that both MCS and Gulf War illness are
related, in some individuals, to biological vulnerability to particular types of environmental exposures.” (p. 284)
http://www1.va.gov/rac-gwvi/docs/GWIandHealthofGWVeterans_RAC-GWVIReport_2008.pdf
September 7th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
that research is related to gulf war illness. i’m not concerned with war veterans who have developed specific chemical sensitivities as a result of being deployed during a war. speaking of doing research, the main finding in the cited report is that these symptoms are probably due to exposures to ” pyridostigmine bromide (PB) pills, given to protect troops from effects of nerve agents, and … pesticide use during deployment “.
i’m concerned with paranoid do-nothings who are afraid to leave their house because people wear clothes made out of synthetics and deodorant has aluminum in it. i suppose you’re going to tell me i’ll die at 45 because i eat foods with MSG in them? or do you equate the health risks of food coloring and depleted uranium?
September 8th, 2009 at 12:20 am
It makes me so sad to read ignorant blog posts like this. Clearly you have no idea what you are talking about. Both MCS and ES are very real and potentially very debilitating – even deadly – conditions. People have died from MCS. My life has been derailed by this illness. I can tell you that air conditioners, cell phones, WiFi, microwaves and other electrical and wireless devices cause me great harm, with damage to my heart, brain, and intestines. This is not hypochondria – the symptoms have occurred while sleeping without any awareness that someone was going to turn on an appliance. I don’t need a double-blind study to confirm it.
I was living a great life with a great job, great apartment, and great social life in NYC before I got sick. There was no reason to leave all that for solitary confinement in the desert. I am not mentally ill. But I am surely being driven crazy from idiotic ignorant rants like yours. I can only hope you will be blessed with the gift of severe electrical and chemical sensitivity so you can experience firsthand what you call “pseudoscience.”
What’s so incredibly sad is the complete lack of compassion for all the lives that have been destroyed by these illnesses and the pain and suffering people live with daily. Being ostracized and called crazy by people like you only adds insult to injury. I just don’t understand where people like you come from. Maybe you should be the one to move to an island.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:39 am
i’m just picking out one of the many gems in your comment: can you somehow withstand the multitude of frequencies a computer emits while searching for blog posts about your fictional disease, then mysteriously get diarrhea when an air conditioner turns on? or is the suffering worth it; you fight through the “low or high blood pressure and slow or fast heart rate” to champion your cause on blogs with 30 readers?
getting in depth (which you guys never seem to want to do), the devices you’ve listed emit at a very wide range of frequencies. air conditioners would primarily be magnetic fields, unless you count the 60hZ every AC device uses. modern cell phones emit at the 850 and 1900MHz frequencies. wifi is 2.45 and 5.2 – 5.8 GHz. microwaves, 2.4 GHz. who knows what device of the week you also complain about. do you propose that your body somehow attenuates ALL of these frequencies specifically? or that you, for unknown reasons of course, experience much higher levels of radiation than other people? this might actually be true – if you’re morbidly obese.
feel free to respond with “i don’t need to know how it works, it just does”, or not respond – that’s expected when you subconsciously realize you have no valid arguments. or maybe your modem is clouding your extrasensory super-antenna of a mind?
by the way, please provide me with ANY references to deaths from electrosensitivity. i looked a bit and found none other than something about a bunch of 80-year-olds dying of cancer in the UK.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:03 am
I am an EHS sufferer and I don’t support the abolition of such things but I do know that EHS and ES and MCS are a fact. My own issue is fluorescent lighting… I pass out and become ill, it is medically proven.. I was strapped with a heart monitor and under medical testing it was evident that the waves or frequencies emitted from these tubes affect my heart drastically and it’s NOT in my head. Try living with something like this, when doctors AND most people think it is all in your head (until it was proven)… I don’t want to be unwell.. I want to be able to live in a technically advanced world, I love electronics… I just don’t like how they make me sick. Think about what you say, and try and have a little compassion for people who are suffering.. whatever the reason may be…
September 8th, 2009 at 4:19 am
Tyler, I have a brain injury. The human body is a complex biochemical and electrical system. My injury has caused disregulation of how my body processes electro-magnetic frequencies, sound, vibrations, and other environmental influences. I can use my laptop but not regular PCs, if you must know. I can’t watch TV or use a refrigerator. I never said I got diarrhea from air conditioners. I get far more serious effects. And I never said people died from ES although I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. I said people have died of MCS. Here is an example: http://www.wtv-zone.com/infchoice/mcs/allen.html I guess you’d call him a real nut job to have gone so far as to have died from it. What a hypochondriac!
September 8th, 2009 at 5:47 am
While you have the right to freedom of speech, you DO NOT have the right to insult and to demean ANYONE the way you did with your response. Different views and opinions are what makes our world go round BUT there is a way to politely or at least respectfully disagree. While I may not like what you have to say or agree with it, I would be willing to listen and give it consideration if it was not written in such a rude manner. Shame on you!
September 8th, 2009 at 9:05 am
i have yet to see any of you refute a single scientific point i posted – are your brains too injured???
technogal: evidently ellipses are one of the symptoms of EHS.
julie: you’re making yourself sound more and more insane. the fact that you differentiate your laptop and “regular PCs” shows how little you understand electromagnetic fields – electrically there’s very little difference between a laptop and a normal, unmodified desktop except for compactness. i actually wouldn’t be surprised if a laptop had stronger emissions due to its density and lack of shielding. the difference you notice, and your symptoms, are psychosomatic.
annoyed sister: do you have anything interesting to say, or do you just like spewing out offended nonsense?
September 8th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Oh Tyler, you’re making me very tired so this will be my last ineffectual post here. You seem to demand that we all become instantaneous physicians/research scientists/electrical engineers able to provide you with research and scientific studies and reasons for why we have been injured the way we have. Yet you ridicule us for trying to find answers online. Make up your mind dude. You can call me psychosomatic and insane all you want. It doesn’t make you right; just stupid. You’ve never even met me so how you think you can diagnosis me online is beyond me. Someone should arrest your ass for providing a medical diagnosis over the Internet. You are a very sad example of a human being, making fun of people with brain injuries that have severely impacted their lives. Yes, shame on you!!
September 8th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Shame on you, Tyler.
September 8th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
“Computers Kill”
please elaborate!
“Someone should arrest your ass for providing a medical diagnosis over the Internet.”
this is a delight.
September 11th, 2009 at 5:51 am
It really annoys me to see such ignorant babble from a nerd sitting on his high perch on the internet. As a student of science, I can tell you really have no idea about the powerful effects even the smallest electronic signal can have on the human body.
Personally, I suffer from EHS. I am posting on this blog via a proxy due to my inability to go near a computer (my caretaker, who is provided to me by the NHS is typing it). I am unable to do the things most regular people do, including plugging something into a wall socket or soldering electrical components, due to residual electrons. How can you be so cruel to those of us in pain?
The true devil of this whole situation is our sun, whose incredibly powerful fusion reactions output enough electromagnetic radiation to mean I can NEVER go outside. Ever got a tan? Well those same ultraviolet rays which you enjoy so much (pretty boy!) are debilitating to those of us with EHS.
Maybe next time think about the implications of your words before you type them.
October 13th, 2009 at 6:04 am
I agree with Tyler. I suppose there may be some extreme cases where people don’t mesh well with technology, but people like Julie, for instance, really grind my gears.
Way to find an illness that means you can lead a lazy life!
October 14th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Tyler, I cannot express enough how much I applaud you taking on these obviously deranged people. I suspect most of them are now dead due to their selfless acts of computer usage. And the herd in that much thinner. Thanks man.
October 14th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Oh lawds… Shane, you are joking right? Please. Be. Joking.
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