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Conundrum

Tue Nov 25 2014, 08:32AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

Hi all.

Seems that EHS is in the news again, unfortunately.

The problem is that the more people read this article, the more people will jump on the EHS "bandwagon" and eventually result in WiFi being taken out of public areas.
Which would be fine for the ISPs plugging home fiber because they would make a fortune at our expense.

I still suspect that nearly all of these cases are one of three things.

1) Hyperosmia, specifically subconscious reactivity to the smell of hot plastic outgassing.
This is actually a real thing and you sometimes get people who feel dizzy when near plastics factories
and new cars etc, the problem usually fixes itself as the plastic ages.

2) Psychosomatic illness, ie the person(s) react to an unknown illness by correlating their symptoms with
something without ever proving causation.
This is more a matter for psychiatrists to fix with cognitive behavior therapy and suchlike.

3) Actual EHS, which has never been observed in any peer reviewed journal.
There were some articles suggesting that robin navigation could be affected by specific frequencies of broadcast radio but in all likelihood these were blown out of all proportion and besides which if the problem was that serious then we would regularly get population crashes which have again not been seen.

I've run into this before, someone at work said that proximity to the computers affected their concentration.
Needless to say they aren't working there any more, because they were in the words of the management "Just Plain Nuts!!!!" and rightfully so.

It would be a dreadful shame if the Powers that Be took away a useful technology just to satisfy a few wingnuts, when a simple "this page has been labeled pseudoscience and has been blocked by your ISP" and list of links to psychotherapy site could replace the EHS sites with only a minor modification to the filters at most ISPs.
Would stop the problem in its tracks and genuinely sick people could get the help they need without wasting money on expen$ive remedies such as nickel painting their entire houses.

To be fair, people CAN react badly to blue light from monitors, phones etc and there is actually discussion that this can sometimes affect sleep patterns.
However the simple fix is for phone manufacturers to include a time sensitive "Blue Cutoff" feature which mutes the blue emitters between 10pm and 6am.
It would be a minor firmware change and plus save the blue emitter from wearing out so quickly on OLED which is the main reason why people replace them.

-A
#include "BOOM_Headshot.h"

Dr. Slack

Tue Nov 25 2014, 09:18AM

Registered Member #72 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:29AM
Location: UK St. Albans
Posts: 1659

I've worked with Faraday cages for big systems, easily large enough to build a comfortable bed-sit in there. How hard would it be to do a blinded pseudo-random A/B exposure trial on some of these sufferers?

It's very difficult to shift beliefs. I was surprised recently to read about the 'discovery' and subsequent discrediting of N-rays. It was the A/B trial that was the definitive nail in its coffin. Do review it if you've not come across it before, it's quite amusing.

I think they ought to be taken seriously enough to say 'OK, let's have a look at your symptoms, and see what level of what frequency you can detect', and go from there. Of course the time from onset of exposure to onset of symptoms could render that sort of investigation impractical, fancy spending a year in a Faraday bedsit. Oh, BTW, while you're in there, no TV, no internet, snail mail only. That might put off some of the complainants.

Shrad

Tue Nov 25 2014, 10:01AM

Registered Member #3215 Joined: Sun Sept 19 2010, 08:42PM
Location:
Posts: 780

I think most of the induced effects would come from kilohertz vibration of poorly designed SMPSes found in small appliances nowadays, and would be perceived by the ear instead

I personally can perceive tones over 20kHz, and more if I'm near of the source, and I find working in an office with plenty of high tone sweeping appliances (in addition to neon glow bulbs and far from optimal HVAC) very harassing...

there are some days where it is a real pain to work, and the effort is hard to produce

Dr. Slack

Tue Nov 25 2014, 12:32PM

Registered Member #72 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:29AM
Location: UK St. Albans
Posts: 1659

I had a gf once who couldn't listen to Pink Floyd, she would run screaming from the room, whatever the track. I have a similar response, but to Benjamin Britten choral work. Definitely a case for psychiatrists, her response that is, not mine.

Sulaiman

Tue Nov 25 2014, 01:37PM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3141

I think that there is more to microwaves than just thermal heating,
I recently read a study (sorry, no reference) on how electromagnetic fields that
WERE NOT intense enough to cause excessive heating or death of living cells
WERE intense enough to severely interfere with mitosis (cell division) to the point of failure to produce viable new cells.
I also have anecdotal evidence from Aard_Wolf (who used to work in amateur radio repair)
that a number of radio amateurs that went 'silent key' (died) of various cancers on the right side of the head
were also heavy users of hand-held transceivers (2W to 5W, 2m/70cm) (walkie-talkie).

Shrad

Tue Nov 25 2014, 03:05PM

Registered Member #3215 Joined: Sun Sept 19 2010, 08:42PM
Location:
Posts: 780

there are still much things we don't know about radiations, be it of any kind

there are cases of families who needed to relocate from having their home constructed over an underground water flow, etc... which are still not understood

even ants and termites somewhat place their biggest colonies at magic places which have proven to have some unusual magnetic characteristics

we as a race are still far from evolved in a certain point of view

hen918

Tue Nov 25 2014, 06:56PM

Registered Member #11591 Joined: Wed Mar 20 2013, 08:20PM
Location: UK
Posts: 556

It's the Daily Mail, scaremongering as usual. 4uW/m^2 ! Is that it!

EDIT: sorry double post!

hen918

Tue Nov 25 2014, 07:02PM

Registered Member #11591 Joined: Wed Mar 20 2013, 08:20PM
Location: UK
Posts: 556

It's the Daily Mail. Says it all.
These people complain that its because wi-fi has been installed. "It wasn't happening before wifi was installed at the school" what they don't realise is that wi-fi, mobile phone masts, mobile phones, etc.. are, and have been, everywhere for ages. Are these same people collapsing when they walk too near a transmitter? No, otherwise they would have said so.

Conundrum

Tue Nov 25 2014, 07:40PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

Certainly large *static* (and by this I mean multi-Tesla) fields have been known to cause strange effects but this is AFAIK the only case on record.
The mechanism is direct neural stimulation via electric potential similar to electric shock, can cause phosphenes and memory loss.

Bored Chemist

Tue Nov 25 2014, 08:40PM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

It seems that the woman in that article is OK (or at least better off) if she goes out wearing a conductive top.
Now, what happens if someone tells her that her skin is conductive?

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