Are you allergic to WiFi? Steve Miller is

By Davey Winder
Saturday, 25 July 2009 17:31

Home IT

Steve Miller is not agoraphobic and has not got Swine Flu. So why is he under virtual house arrest? The answer, strangely enough, is because he's allergic to WiFi. No, really.

Although not widely publicised, nor understood by many in the medical profession, Electrical Hypersensitivity (ES) is said to cause symptoms including sleep disturbance, headaches, concentration problems, limb and joint pains, impaired balance and hearing loss.

Steve Miller knows all about it, because he has the thing and it is keeping him trapped inside the 18 inch thick granite walls of his remote detached house near Falmouth in Cornwall, UK. When he ventures out he feels sick, dizzy, confused and suffers from agonising headaches.

A trip down the local high street is a nightmare, and most pubs are out of bounds for Steve. As are, for that matter, airports and hotels. He can no longer travel by train because of the pain and suffering his condition causes.

And it's all caused by WiFi.

According to the ES support group there has been much media speculation, but also a lot of research, into the ill-health effects caused by "a number of modern wireless communication conveniences" including mobile phones and base stations, DECT cordless phones and, of course, WiFi.

Steve told The Sun newspaper that he feels "like an exile on my own planet" claiming that it is "almost impossible to find somewhere without wi-fi nowadays".

He says that he has to travel three miles to find a pub without WiFi if he fancies a pint, and even had to move house as being within 50 yards of any other houses leaves him open to being infected by their WiFi signals.

Apparently Steve is not alone, and some two percent of the UK population suffer from the effects of Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity. With cars being equipped as rolling WiFi hotspots there could soon be no escape for sufferers.