this 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.
