ORIGINAL COMMENT · UNEDITED TEXT
I came down with electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) in October 2008, at the age of 61. It was sudden: I was moving into HUD elder housing in Cambridge, MA, between Harvard and MIT, into an apartment on the ninth floor. At the time, I knew nothing about EHS. But I have since learned that high floors, including the ninth, are generally more exposed to cell tower and urban repeater antenna wireless radiation than are lower floors. I have also learned that the tipping point, from not having EHS to having EHS, is often sudden, as it was in my case.
I was sitting at the large window of my new apartment, looking at the view, and after about 20 minute I noticed that I felt like I had been on my cell phone for over an hour. So I moved away from the window. I didn't think much of it, until I tried to use my cell phone, and it felt like one side of my head went higher and the other half went lower, like my head had become a split-level. And it felt like my brain was in the grip of an iron fist, and I could barely think or see straight.
I waited for some hours and tried my cell phone again, with the same result. Then I waited a few days and tried again: same result. I soon became sensitive to computers as well. Now, 18 years later, I can use a fully wired (no wi-fi) computer, for two to three hours per week, but still cannot use a cell phone. I am also sensitive to smart meters.
I have lived in rural Arizona since 2012. This has helped, but cell towers, smart meters, etc. have been closing in at an accelerating pace, even here, and at ever-higher frequencies (5G plus)
And so new symptoms have been appearing, such as "surges" that mimic going in and out of overstimulated parasympathetic nervous system. I have discussed this with an MD, who confirms that this is what it sounds like. I feel affected by cell tower radiation a good deal of the time, with symptoms ranging from skin and eye irritation, burning, and even redness of skin and eyes, to "brain fog", dizziness, and a feeling like a spike is going up my spine.
I became ill with EHS at a later age than most. I know people whose productive lives were brought to a halt by this illness when they were in their 30s and 40s, mid-career. Other EHS-afflicted acquaintances have committed suicide.
I have letters from my doctor in Cambridge, Christina C. Wee, MD, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, in my support reporting my self-reported symptoms, and from doctors in Arizona. One of these MDs, Kristi Mattson, has confirmed my EHS disability at a functional level. But there is no way for a doctor to officially diagnose this illness or even test for it at an official level, because there has been virtually no funding of any serious research that takes into account that different people are sensitive to different wavelengths, and examination rooms must be fully shielded and devoid of wavelengths that can confuse the issue. (For example, I am much more sensitive to kilohertz than to FM radio megahertz.) Thus, establishments of all kinds have preferred to call this illness "idiopathic", a dog-whistle word for "all in the head". They used to say this about other illnesses, such as epilepsy, lupus, etc. I hope this comment period signals a change in attitude, and serious consideration of this emerging illness.
Thank you very much.