I was once standing in a vacant apartment with a woman who said she couldn't rent there because the Wi-Fi signal in the area was making her feel ill.
After she left, I pulled out my iPhone to search for signals. I could find none.
I'm not saying it was all in this woman's head, but if she could ever harness whatever sensor she has and sell it to Apple, she'd be a millionaire.
I've seen versions of this story more than once:
http://www.timescolonist.com/sensitive-riders-want-a-safe-place-away-from-b-c-ferries-wi-fi-1.558673
Since I inhabit a world that constantly bombards me with radiofrequency — Internet router, smart meter — I have more than a passing interest in the validity of this claim.
On the one hand, it all seems pretty cut and dried.
Reporter Ben Ingram writes: Health Canada maintains that “there is no convincing scientific evidence that exposure to low-level radiofrequency energy from Wi-Fi causes adverse health effects in humans.”
Scientific. Definitive. What's the problem?
Well, people like Louise Campbell, who told Ingram this: “For me, my day is thinking about how long I can spend in the mall, because there’s Wi-Fi in the mall. If I’m going to a friend’s house, I have to ask them to turn the Wi-Fi off.”
She says the RF causes fatigue and dizziness. Maybe it's something else. Motion sickness? Air pollution? Hay fever?
I can't just dismiss her claims. What would be her motivation for making it up? And it's not the first time that empirical data was at odds with personal experience.
Short of calling them loons, I wonder what you think. Share your thoughts, your stories, your definitive proof on the topic.
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- This is what we call participatory journalism
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