Tower Switch-Off Embarrasses Electrosensitives 292
Sockatume writes "Residents in Craigavon, South Africa complained of '[h]eadaches, nausea, tinnitus, dry burning itchy skins, gastric imbalances and totally disrupted sleep patterns' after an iBurst communications tower was put up in a local park. Symptoms subsided when the residents left the area, often to stay with family and thus evade their suffering. At a public meeting with the afflicted locals, the tower's owners pledged to switch off the mast immediately to assess whether it was responsible for their ailments. One problem: the mast had already been switched off for six weeks. Lawyers representing the locals say their case against iBurst will continue on other grounds."
Re:LOL, ROFLMAO, ha-ha, but... (Score:5, Informative)
It's more likely just a kind of group psychology phenomenon (I'm sure someone with more knowledge of the terms involved will chime in eventually). A group of people convinced themselves that this was happening, and with more and more talking about it and believing it even more people believe they're sick from evil towers as well.
Hell, there were stories a few months back about men in other parts of Africa killing supposed witches, blaming them for shrinking genitals. These men actually believed they had the shrunk junk and killed for it. Not trying to pick on Africa in particular here, just the first story I recalled.
Come to think of it, I've heard of this exact same scenario played out somewhere in the US--A community complained of these symptoms only to find that the tower in question wasn't even finished and had never been turned on.
Re:Ha. (Score:5, Informative)
Accidentally, many places in Africa (so South Africa too, probably, especially with their number of immigrants from across the continent) still experience hunts for supposed witches .
Or "witchcraft" generally, for that matter.
This is why Africa can't have nice things. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Faraday Cage (Score:4, Informative)
This isn't good for battery life; but it also doesn't do much to reduce your EM exposure.
If he doesn't mind the risk of spending a month of nights on the couch, he should tell her to use a bluetooth headset so that she can keep her dangerous cellphone's danger rays away from her brain. Hilarious, until she finds out that you've advised shoving an RF transceiver in your ear canal in order to reduce RF exposure, then things get ugly...
Re:it's peanut allergy waves (Score:0, Informative)
I've done a few tests on some people with "food sensitivity" before.
A friend of mine had a 100 point list of foods he was "sensitive" to and I used to slip them in his food now and then and then ask him how he's feeling.
If I told him right after that there was cabbage or Onions in the food, he would complain bitterly for days about low energy and headaches.
But when I put the same food in and didn't tell him, he was fine. Said he felt great.
I documented this over about 6 months and then showed him the results.
He was shocked and has since realized that his "sensitivity" was something he probably got from his hypochondriac mother and simply worried himself into sickness each time he realized he accidentally ate those things.
Of course, there are "real" allergies. I've had to shoot someone with epinephrine after eating nuts and falling to the floor unable to breathe like a fish out of water, so I know that is damn well true, but many of the "sensitivities" out there are purely mental, I'm quite sure.
Wow, nice excluded middle fallacy there Holmes. (Score:2, Informative)
Historically, the cause of these problems has almost always the indiscriminate overuse of herbicides during tower construction.
Usually, the parent company that contracted for erection of the tower or pole is not even aware that the contractors used 10,000 times the recommended concentration of herbicide because "more must be better, right?".
You pretty much have to do on-the-spot soil sampling to confirm this. The local people who actually sprayed will deny everything, because if they don't the local people who are suffering will lynch them.
If no real testing has been done, you have no evidence. You need blood samples and soil samples and you need them as soon as possible - after a year it will be impossible to prove or disprove anything.
But hey, don't let me interfere with the pile-on here... I can think of ten other plausible scenarios but apparently people would rather mock than sympathize.
Re:Faraday Cage (Score:3, Informative)
Looks both ways.
It's ok, you wife either doesn't read slashdot, or already knows she is a loon.
Re:"The case will continue...." (Score:1, Informative)
Shakrai/Commodore64_love, are you talking to yourself again?
How pathetic is it when someone with two accounts has a conversation with himself?
Re:Faraday Cage (Score:2, Informative)
In general, the mesh will block wavelengths longer than half the length between the wires. If he used chicken wire, with say, 2 cm big holes, WiFi signals are going to get through. I believe most high power AC transmission lines are in the tens to hundreds of kHz, so chicken wire would cover that. It wouldn't even need to be grounded, because it's exposed to so many different pieces of the wave that it's all out of phase and very little would transmit inside. A sufficiently paranoid person could probably line the wall and ceiling sheetrock with aluminum foil before texturing. Toss in some aluminum blinds and I bet you can't get OTA TV.
It's funny, because I just had this conversation with my dad. He was wondering why he had such terrible cell reception, even though he could see a cell tower -- he wondered if it was because of the metal mesh that went behind the stucco when the house was built. We talked a little bit of math and pointed out that even radios and TV worked inside (KHz and MHz range), and now he's back to being angry with Sprint. There's no sense pointing out that the cell tower he sees is 10 miles away on top of a mountain in the middle of Phoenix and the HOA won't let a cell tower anywhere near them.
Re:"The case will continue...." (Score:4, Informative)
Re:"The case will continue...." (Score:3, Informative)
You can't cook an egg with 2 cellphones.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_cook_egg_cell_phones.htm [about.com]
Re:Correlation != Causation (Score:3, Informative)
Wait, how do you compare something that has never been proven dangerous (power lines) to a manufacturing plant knowingly using a metal that is known to be both highly toxic and carcinogenic [cdc.gov] in children's toys?
Re:Faraday Cage (Score:3, Informative)
The frequency of the alternating current transmitted on high tension lines is the same as the frequency of the alternating current you get in your house. Usually, either 50 Hz or 60 Hz. [kropla.com] Grounded chicken wire will block nearly all the radiation from a power line. Unless South Africa has some mondo chickens.
Re:"The case will continue...." (Score:3, Informative)