A club DJ, Steve Miller, has claimed he has been forced into exile by a powerful allergy to Wi-Fi internet waves which leaves him feeling dizzy, sick and disorientated. Mr Miller, better known by his stage name Afterlife, says he is unable to use trains, stay in hotels or visit his local high street because of his sensitivity to the “electrosmog” cause by wireless internet waves.
He is among around two per cent of the population who claim they suffer from Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity, while the number of people and businesses pumping out the Wi-Fi signal is rising.Mr Miller told The Sun: “I feel like an exile on my own planet. It’s almost impossible to find somewhere without Wi-Fi nowadays.
“If I fancy a pint I have to travel three miles to the only pub in my area that doesn’t have it. I can’t just go to the shops because huge parts of the high street affect me. ”If I go somewhere, I can instantly sense the Wi-Fi and have to leg it.” Mr Miller, who had a residency at the Ibiza nightclub Pacha before his allergy, said he has missed out on a large number of overseas gigs because all airports and most hotels have Wi-Fi. The only place where he says he can escape the “electrosmog” is in his own home – a detached house with 18in thick granite walls in a village near Falmouth, Cornwall.
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This is doubtless horrible for Mr Miller and I have no doubt his symptoms are entirely real, but 37 “provocation studies” seem to show no link between sufferers’ symptoms and whether a nearby electrotransmitting device is switched on (double-blinded, obviously).
The excellent Ben Goldacre has done this better than I can: http://www.badscience.net/2006/05/attack-of-the-killer-kettles/
It seems likely that either there is a different cause, or the symptoms are psychosomatic (which is not the same as imaginary, obviously).
The same story’s in The Sun, with an extra detail:
“Steve’s new Afterlife album, Electrosensitive, is out now on Defected Records.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2552553/Wi-fi-waves-make-top-DJ-Steve-Miller-sick-Steve-Miller-aka-Afterlife.html
Hmm, I wonder if he’ll be prepared to submit to some double blind testing? Or maybe he should submit himself to James Randis Million Dollar Challenge. Or maybe he should just get over himself and realise he’s probably deluding himself and that there is zero scientific evidence that human beings are able to pick-up on the specific electromagnetic emminations of WiFi brodcasts.
While I do believe it is possible for people to be sensitive to electromagnetism, just like those cows they spotted all lined to magnetic north with Google maps, being ONLY sensitive to wi-fi is not possible. If you have ever scanned the electromagnetic noise in modern buildings you will see that there is tons of it. But being sensitive to only one tiny frequency range is nonsense.
A practical solution for this guy is a tin foil hat.
I do wonder if that was the reason why alot of ancient egyptians were using those heavy-element head garnment though….
I wonder how old this guy is and whether he checked for other causes (plenty of causes, known ones but also the ones that have no cure .. tons of people running around with complaints like him but they dont link it up to wife). I wonder whether he would be willing to undergo a test to see whether it is really wifi that bugs him ….. Can be done quite easily.
If you let it become that big without having consulted a doctor or checked some stuff inside yourself first …
Too many people start to see the cause in things like that … a bit as when you hear sounds or see things and then link them immediately up to a spirit world …..
reminds me of white noise 2!
I agree w/ Slugsie. If he can detect wi-fi signals I bet the CIA could use him, and I would LOVE to know what exactly it is the modus operandi of wi-fi on his physiology.
So I guess he is just allergic to specific radio frequencies? Please.