Best, Imelda, Cork
_____________________________________________
Wednesday 18 May 2011
Telegraph.co.uk
Meet the woman allergic to electricity
A British woman cannot use an electric kettle, keeps her washing machine
in a concrete outhouse and cannot have neighbours with wireless
internet because she is allergic to electricity.
Janice Tunnicliffe using an EMF detector Photo: HARVEY HOOK / HOTSPOT
MEDIA
By Andy Bloxham 9:37AM BST 18 May 2011 Follow Andy Bloxham on Twitter
74 Comments Janice Tunnicliffe spends every night playing Scrabble by
candlelight with her husband because she claims to have a rare
condition called electrosensitivity.
She cannot bear to be anywhere near electromagnetic fields of any kind
and, as a result, she cannot watch television, listen to the radio or
talk on a mobile phone and has been left completely isolated from
the modern world by her condition.
Mrs Tunnicliffe, 55, was struck down with the illness after receiving
chemotherapy for bowel cancer three years ago.
Since then she has suffered constant headaches, chest pains, nausea and
tingling in her arms and legs whenever she is near electrical
devices or items that emit a signal.
Her only relief in this time was when her village, near Mansfield in
rural Nottinghamshire, suffered a temporary power cut.
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May 2011 She said: "Different things give me different feelings but it's
mostly headaches and nausea. iPhones make feel really sick within
about 20 minutes of being near one so even though I might not
realise someone has one straightaway, I soon find out.
"Wifi makes me feel like I have a clamp at the back of my head which is
squeezing the life out of me. It's completely draining and a home
hub can totally immobilise me - I'm left unable to move my arms and
legs."
Mrs Tunnicliffe’s normal existence was turned upside down when in
February 2008 she was admitted to hospital with severe abdominal
pains and vomiting.
After three days of tests, it was discovered she was suffering from
cancer and surgeons operated immediately to remove a six-inch tumour
from her bowel, plus 14 lymph nodes.
Fortunately, despite the size of the tumour, her cancer had not spread,
but it was decided that she should have chemotherapy after the
surgery as a precautionary measure.
But it was then that her unusual problem started and she began to feel
ill whenever she was near the myriad electrical and wireless items in
her home.
She said: “Personally, I think there must be a link with the
chemotherapy and the ES, but no one is going to admit that.
“I used to go for long walks every day and while I was out of the house
I would be okay. But when I came back I would start to feel unwell
again very quickly and slowly I started to put two and two together.
"After the cancer, the doctors recommended we enjoy a nice holiday
somewhere and the whole family went to the Greek island of Kos for
two weeks in September 2008.
"While I was there was I was fine, but when I got home I felt ill again
almost straightaway. It wasn't until afterwards that I considered
it might have been because of all the 'electrosmog' we were
experiencing at home.”
Mrs Tunnicliffe has even had to cover her windows with a special
metallic material to deflect errant electromagnetic waves.
Graham Lamburn, technical manager at Powerwatch, an independent
organisation which promotes safer environments, said so far the
medical profession has been slow to recognise electrosensitivity as
an illness as its causes are as yet unknown.
The Council of Europe Committee on Monday called for a dramatic
reduction in exposure to phones and other wireless devices.
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lescrooge 1 second ago
WELL HERE IS SOME BREAKING NEWS !!!!!!
Personal electrosensitivity is quite common.
And guess what..
It varies from person to person.
We all have electromagnetic energy in our bodies.
By virtue of this, internal EMR, and in case you think I am making this
up, by the laws of physics, we are all aware - to some level or
another -of other electromagnetic fields around us.
We all elicit symptoms, to some level or another.
Whether we are able to suppress them because they are so slight, does
not deny their existence.
The symptoms of electyrosensitvity are a result of being in the
proximity of external electromagnetic radiation.
What the electricity boards have been denying for years, that the EMR
from the pylons installed in people's gardens HAVE BEEN DOING THE
RESIDIENTS IN is proven here with Mrs Tunnicliffe.
Now we have living factual proof which, thanks to Mr Powerbrain, a
certain Graham Lamburn, technical manager at Powerwatch, an independent
organisation which promotes safer environments, said so far the medical
profession has been slow to recognise electrosensitivity as an illness
as its causes are as yet unknown, he has just succeeded in rubbishing.
Mrs Tunnicliffe has an extreme EMR sensitivity. It is not an illness -
per se, as everyone has it.
It's a bit like lactose intolerance.
Everyone over 6 years old is capable of being lactose intolerant,
because the presence of the enzyme that processes bovine milk and dairy
in our bodies - lactaze - reduces dramatically.
It does not disappear completely.
If it did, then we would all have fatal lactate allergies.
But the dairy industry calls it a disease because they have just lost a
lifetime sale.
Nice guys don't you think.
It's just the
Report Recommend englishandproudofit 8 minutes ago
Wonder if there's a whole load of disability benefits lurking behind
this story?
Report Recommend ElBairdo 23 minutes ago
The reactions to this story are ludicrous. Ignoramuses taking the piss
out of a suffering woman... Could it be that they are already
burned-out cases in the brain department? Nobody knows the side-effects
of all the marvellous electro-magnetic devices now in use. Scientists
themselves are divided. It took several hundred years before the world
woke up to the dangers of tobacco.
Report Recommend sumayya 28 minutes ago
How is electrmagnetism measured? what are the levels of EM in this
ladys' house? What are the safety levels for this lady? What is the
threshold for her? Where does she draw the line?
Perhaps she suffers from metal allergy? she is wearing neck and ear
jewellery? what is that made of?
Report Recommend jacaranda Today 12:46 PM
The brain, nervous system and muscles work by chemically-generated
electrical impulses. That's how things like EEG work. So, taking it
seriously instead of flippantly, it's not impossible that strong
localized electromagnetic fields could affect someone who has some sort
of abnormality that makes them particularly sensitive. Though I
suspect that you'd need something that generates quite a strong field
(powerlines, mobile phones when transmitting) and probably not the tiny
amount of leakage you'd get from, say, your 'fridge.
I suspect though that at least some of it is psychological - after all,
if you're out in a crowd there's about a 99% chance that somebody
somewhere is using an iPhone, and if you don't see one you can convince
yourself that it's there anyway and end up in a state of phobia. And if
it's "only" psychological that doesn't make it non-existant, the woman
still suffers (assuming she's not just making it up) whether it's the
EM fields she blames it on or something else.
Report Recommend Simon_99 Today 12:42 PM
Recommended by 3 people
Candles emit light, which is itself an electromagnetic wave. The earth
has a magnetic field. We are bathed in radio emissions from TV and
radio transmitters. It is essentially impossible to avoid being
exposed to EM fields almost everywhere in the UK.
Report Recommend Danny 54 minutes ago
It's the frequency some people are sensitive too. I can 'feel' fields
to a limited degree, prolonged exposure to strong fields give me
migraines, and I've met people who are much more painfully sensitive
than me, one man who lives in a hut in his garden because he can feel
pain when a kettle is switched on in his house. We are electromagnetic
beings, this shouldn't be too surprising and even if it is unusual it
is no more unusual than many afflictions that surprise those who don't
suffer from it.
I think Mrs Tunnicliffe may be extrapolating inaccurately, but there
are practical methods she can take to relive her suffering, even if
these are just a placebo affect. At the risk of 'tin foil hat' jokes,
these are based around Faraday cage principles, such as uniquely
grounded metallised curtains and wall-liners.
Report Recommend corvetteman Today 12:39 PM
Recommended by 3 people