Heres a new one: allergic to the internet

[TZ]

Group wants Wi-Fi banned from public buildings

A group in Santa Fe says the city is discriminating against them because they say that they're allergic to the wireless Internet signal. And now they want Wi-Fi banned from public buildings.

Arthur Firstenberg says he is highly sensitive to certain types of electric fields, including wireless Internet and cell phones.

"I get chest pain and it doesn't go away right away," he said.

Firstenberg and dozens of other electro-sensitive people in Santa Fe claim that putting up Wi-Fi in public places is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

http://kob.com/article/stories/S451152.shtml?cat=517

Do this idiot even know what "allergic" means? White blood cell/histime reaction to a particulate in the air/body?
And if they are so "allergic" why don't they react to radio waves, TV's, cordless cell phones and basically feel nasty all the time?
Nutters and probably ambulance chasing lawyers among them.:eyes:

[salvorhardin]

1. Clueless and hypochondriatic

You nailed it. The atmosphere is awash in electromagnetic waves, many of them far stronger than the average wifi signal. One such instance is that yellow glowy thing in the sky.

Thanks for posting this. This is good blog material. BTW: Are you still doing your blog? PM or post the link. I seem to have lost it.

On edit: Wouldn't you know the guy is a conspiracy theorist too.

Microwaving Our Planet
Cellular Assault

by Arthur Firstenberg
In February of last year, only five senators and 16 representatives voted "no" on the Telecommunications Act of 1996. We have, consequently, hundreds of new satellites competing for space in our crowded skies, hundreds of thousands of new communication towers sprouting up in our midst and the uncontrolled proliferation of wireless broadcasts. This amounts to an electromagnetic war on life from which there soon will be no place to hide. ...

Frey warned of "a small group of scientists controlling the setting of health hazard standards, controlling what research bearing on that standard gets funded or published, while providing testimony for various companies and government agencies to the effect that substantial microwave energy exposure is safe."

This "small group of scientists" was made up of engineers and veterinarians, not doctors, biologists or epidemiologists. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) — the agency that was (and still is) setting microwave exposure standards — is not a government agency but a private organization funded and controlled by industry.
http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/new_articles.cfm?articleID=202&journalID=47

He also claims he was unable to finish his education because of dental x-rays.

Arthur Firstenberg (born c. 1951) is an American author and activist in the field of electromagnetic hypersensitivity. He is the author of Microwaving Our Planet: The Environmental Impact of the Wireless Revolution (1997) and founder of the Cellular Phone Taskforce.<1>

Arthur received a B.A. in mathematics from Cornell University in 1971 and continued into medical school between 1978 and 1982. He claims that he was unable to continue his schooling due to electromagnetic hypersensitivity, which he attributes to diagnostic dental x-rays.<1>

Since the onset of his illness, he has argued in numerous publications that there exists a massive and world-wide conspiracy, in which "the telecommunications industry has suppressed damaging evidence about its technology since at least 1927."<2> The World Health Organization maintains, "no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects."<3>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Firstenberg

[cosmik debris]

2. I looked this up, "cause I wanted to know.

Re: transmit power

Part 15.247 provides details on limitations of EIRP (equivalent isotropically radiated power). EIRP represents the total effective transmit power of the radio, including gains that the antenna provides and losses from the antenna cable. You must take all of these into account when calculating the EIRP for a specific radio.

snip

When using omni-directional antennas having less than 6 dB gain in this scenario, the FCC rules require EIRP to be 1 watt (1,000 milliwatts) or less.

In most cases, you'll be within regulations using omni-directional antennas supplied by the vendor of your radio NICs and access points. For example, you can set the transmit power in an 802.11b access point or client to its highest level (generally 100 milliwatts) and use a typical 3 dB omni-directional antenna. This combination results in only 200 milliwatts EIRP, which is well within FCC regulations.

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1428941

I'm still not sure at what distance that 1 watt is measured, but I am sure that the law of inverse squares applies.

[salvorhardin]

3. EIRP is calculated

In other words, the 1 watt isn't a measured value but represents the product of the power applied to the antenna and the gain of the antenna. Usually signal losses are taken into account. This page shows how EIRP is calculated:

Example: Calculation of transmit EIRP for an antenna having the following data. Transmit power per carrier- 0.28 W, antenna feeder loss-1.00 dB, antenna pointing loss-0.70 dB And transmitter antenna gain 45.21dB.
Solution: Transmit EIRP = 10 log (0.28)-1 + 45.21- 0.70 = 37.98 dB
http://www.tutorialsweb.com/satcom/link-power-budget/transmit-eirp.htm

The example gives the solution's value in db but I believe it should be expressed as dbW. I think the WiFi Planet example you gave should be expressed in dbW too.

[cosmik debris]

4. Well, I had the wrong impression.

I used to work with radiation and ultrasound. The watts measurement was only used to measure energy transfered to the target. That is not the case with RF antennas.

Thanks for setting me straight.

[LeftishBrit]

5. I wish...

that certain members of the Health forum were allergic to the Internet!

[moggie]

6. Issue them with tinfoil helmets

Better still, ask them to prove their electrosensitivity. Put them in a shielded room with a wifi access point on which the LEDs have been disabled. Switch the AP on and off remotely, and get the test subjects to record when it is on. This research has already been done, of course, with negative results (badscience.net has covered the topic on several occasions, with discussions of some papers).

[Warpy]

10. My own suggestion on another topic area

was that he move to a decommissioned missile silo. It's about the only place I can think of where his oh so sensitive soul would be shielded from all the nasty microwaves flying around.

Of course, he could always go to a DOCTOR and get some nitro for the chest pain and some Xanax for the anxiety and maybe one of the milder antipsychotics for his lunacy, but then we all know what a shill for Big Pill I am.

[onager]

7. His problem is obvious.

Firstenberg's body must be reacting to the resonant frequency of the Earth itself, about 7-8 Hz.

The solution is obvious, too: leave Earth! It's a win-win situation for everybody.

[TZ]

11. ......

:rofl: :spray: :thumbsup:

[progressoid]

8. "I get chest pain and it doesn't go away right away,"

After reading this, I got a brain pain.

[Orrex]

9. Me too. I'm not allergic to the internet, but I'm allergic to some of the shit I read on in

:eyes:

[madinmaryland]

12. I'm allergic to all of the crap in GD:Pffth!!1!!

[realisticphish]

13. GD:P

GD:P is the best emoticon error ever