Name: Can You Be Allergic to WiFi?
Uploaded: 2018-02-28T15:30:19.000Z
Duration: 4 min 39 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Everyone's got a cell phone, compact fluorescent
lights are the norm, and we cook our dinners

Could all these electromagnetic waves whipping
around be harmful?

A recent article by Ed Cumming in the Guardian
describes a tiny hamlet in West Virginia with

an array of massive radio telescopes looming
over it.

Telescopes like this are extremely sensitive;
this year in Australia what was originally

thought to be a major breakthrough in the
search for life was actually just bursts of

radiation emitted when someone was opening
the microwave in the break room before the

So in order to pick up radio waves from the
edges of the universe clearly, the town has

That means no cell signals or radio, and if
you have wifi in your home, occasionally some

nice men and women from the telescope will
come 'round and ask you to turn it off.

While this sounds like my own personal version
of hell, to others it's a safe haven.

Not from the barrage of facebook and twitter,
which I totally get and by the way you can

follow me @JHug00, but from the electromagnetic
waves themselves.

Diane Schou is one of the people seeking peace
in Green Bank because she claims she's electrosensitive.

Schou says she moved there after she started
getting severe headaches, blurred vision,

She describes her symptoms as radiation sickness
and attributed it to a US Cellular tower by

her home, but she's also sensitive to fluorescent
lights and electric fences.

She's not alone either, and since she moved
to Green Bank, 40 other electrosensitive people

Can the invisible little waves that constantly
surround us have an effect on our bodies?

She says she was sensitive only to US Cellular
towers, and specifically said she didn't

The problem with that is US Cellular uses
frequencies around 850 MHz and 1900 MHz, and

so does AT&T, so right away her claim is looking
suspect.

She also likens her symptoms to radiation
sickness but there's a problem there too.

Just because “electromagnetic radiation”
has the word radiation in it, doesn't mean

Radio and microwaves have less energy than
visible light, and substantially less energy

These higher energy waves, along with particles
emitted from from nuclear radiation, can damage

tissue and cause radiation sickness by stripping
electrons off atoms.

Most people who report electromagnetic sensitivity
also have a wide and varying range of symptoms,

which makes their case harder to substantiate.

There's also the fact that Schou says she's
sensitive to fluorescent lights.

Fluorescents do emit more UVB radiation than
incandescents but UV radiation is at wavelengths

that are orders of magnitude smaller than
radio or microwaves.

They're on the other side of the spectrum
as visible light.

So why isn't visible light also irritating?

Plus the falloff of radiation from compact
fluorescent lights, or CFLs, is so steep that

at just 4 feet away it's equivalent to background
radiation.

CFLs are different than incandescents because
they flicker, and you might guess the flickering

from fluorescent lights is giving Schou headaches.

But that's unlikely because modern fluorescent
bulbs flicker at 10,000 to 40,000 cycles per

second, and that is way too fast for the human
eye to see.

Studies have looked into the claim of Electrosensitivity
too, and they haven't turned up any concrete

A double blind study from 2006 observed 60
self-reported sensitive people as well as

They were exposed to a 900 MHz pulsing signal,
a non-pulsing signal, and a condition with

The sensitive subjects reported symptoms when
a signal was present 60% of the time.

They reported symptoms when a signal wasn't
present 63% of the time.

That's not to say the symptoms aren't
real.

But the cause is probably not electromagnetic
frequencies, it's the belief that it's

It could be another case of the placebo effect's
evil twin, the nocebo effect.

So despite the abundance of invisible waves
carrying phone calls and dirty snapchats past

you in the air, it looks like you're going
to be A-OK, so long as you think you're

If you're not terrified of radiation, good
news, you can also use it to wirelessly charge

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Can You Be Allergic to WiFi?

constantly

equivalent

present

evidence