Sense and sensitivity

[shewhomust]

Yesterday's Technology Guardian carried an article entitled Is there any proof that Wi-Fi networks can make you sick?. It answered its question, very reasonably, by saying that there was no proof, but then again, there had been no research capable of providing such proof. It quoted writer Kate Figes as believing that she was sensitive to the presence of wi-fi, that she had installed wi-fi in her home and suffered discomfort which she had resolved by uninstalling the system. The author went on to suggest an experiment to discover whether you, too, have "EMF sensitivity".

I have no view either way on the existence of such sensitivity, but I thought that the article was overlooking something, and I wrote the following letter:

Today's Technology Guardian carries a story implying that Kate Figes, finding that her wi-fi installation made her ill, resolved the problem by uninstalling it. This implies that none of her neighbours has wi-fi.

Your reporter, Charles Arthur, proceeds to suggest an experiment to determine whether you are sensitive to wi-fi: it, too, relies on the ability to switch off the wi-fi radiation (i.e., assumes that none of the neighbours has wi-fi). It wouldn't work where I live.

I thought this was about as dismissive of the article as was polite.

The author of the aticle, Charles Arthur, turns out to be the editor of that section of the paper. He wrote:

Hi..

Kate Figes made the claim about her Wi-Fi, not me.

For yourself, you could try the experiment by going to a friend's house in
a detached location. Have a Wi-Fi enabled laptop to check for the presence of an stray networks.

Then try the experiment. As I said, get in touch if you get 24 or more of
32.

I don't think of myself as a subtle person, but maybe this time I was being too subtle...

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

All I can say is, oy.

Yes, you were

[(Anonymous)]

If you'd had as many emails from people who hadn't done the test but insisted on getting in touch to say that they were definitely sensitive to wireless routers, then you'd likely miss subtlety like that too.

And why dismiss the article? It told you something you might not have known before - that there's a study coming out next year which might have some implications for wireless.

That's what we try to do - bring you stuff you didn't know before.

Charles Arthur, editor, Technology