National Radio Quiet Zone a haven for people who say wireless signals make them sick

Bennie says: "The National Radio Quiet Zone is a 13,000 square mile area located in parts of West Virginia and Virginia. Some find the silence soothing; others because they suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Whatever the personal reasons, more people are flocking here because of the lack of cellphone signals."

Here's The Daily's Ashley Kindergan on the National Radio Quiet Zone:

The Allegheny Mountains are a natural block against radio signals, and federal law allows strict regulation of manmade signals from fixed, permanent transmitters, such as cellphone towers, within the quiet zone. State law sets limits for the signal strength of electronic devices within a 10-mile radius of the telescope.

Diane Schou may have been the first person suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity, a scientifically controversial condition that sufferers say causes them to become ill after exposure to things such as cellphone towers Wi-Fi, to settle in the radiotelescopes’ shadow.

“It’s not a perfect place, but it’s the only place in the world that in my opinion is protected,” Schou told The Daily.

The Daily: NIXED SIGNALS -- A vast mountain region gives cellphones the silent treatment - and locals like it

(Image: microwave tower, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from cyrusbulsara's photostream)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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The Snowden Principle

geekandwife

Well its nice to know what area all the crazy people are moving to…
corydodt

Cool, they are now experiencing 0.00003% less radio noise than before, well done. BTW, the sun is still up there in the sky, bombarding you.
vonbobo

Technological refugees!? My first thought is that this is the basis for a sci-fi story, then my second thought was that someone’s probably already done it.

This condition sounds crazy, but then so does the idea of a universe.
- Lobster
  
  They’re called the Amish, dude.
  - vonbobo
    
    Of course, the Amish “choose” not to participate in electronic technology.
    
    This scenario is more similar to (the could have been cool but instead is incredibly lame movie) Gattaca.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RHG2QORT54PKZY4LHHVHBOZBZY Abe Lincoln

“… a scientifically controversial condition…”. There’s nothing scientifically controversial about it. That’s like saying that Astrology is scientifically controversial.
- Lobster
  
  Hey man, teach the controversy. Personally I think it’s all caused by the giant turtle upon which the planet rides. I used to think it was the elephants, but that’s been scientifically disproven.
  - Dewi Morgan
    
    Oh yeah? And what’s beneath the turtle?
    - Lobster
      
      There is nothing beneath the turtle. It’s turtle all the way down.
Hawkins Dale

“Scientifically controversial?” Hogwash. There’s nothing remotely controversial, scientifically, about electromagnetic hypersensitivity. The author of the story is being careless.

Stick one of these sufferers in a Faraday cage with a RF emitter. Don’t tell them whether the emitter is turned on or not. Ask them if they’re having symptoms. See if the symptoms correlate to the emitter being turned on or not.

If there were some such correlation, then it would be “scientifically controversial.”
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RHG2QORT54PKZY4LHHVHBOZBZY Abe Lincoln
  
  http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4072
  
  Like you said…. :)
  - Hawkins Dale
    
    Oh, no, Mr. President… Like YOU said.
    
    http://www.who.int/peh-emf/publications/reports/EHS_Proceedings_June2006.pdf
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RHG2QORT54PKZY4LHHVHBOZBZY Abe Lincoln
      
      “This finding is certainly consistent with the findings of other studies,
      which have tested various treatments for ES. What these studies have
      found is that the only successful treatment has been psychotherapy.”
      
      It appears that ES claimants are far more likely to report psychosomatic issues with far greater frequency than non claimants and that the only really successful treatment was seeing a shrink.
      - digi_owl
        
        Not surprised. I have wondered before if not the issue is one of long term work related stress. As most office workers these days carry a mobile phone and a laptop computer, it can be easy to attribute the physical effects of the stress to those. Especially of one leave them at home or office at some point, and feel the effects of the stress go away because one do not have some constant nag from management or colleagues via them.
Jacob Ewing

Given my lack of expertise in both medicine and radio, I’ll give those who claim such a malady the benefit of the doubt. I would however love to see a study on how their symptoms are affected if some fake radio towers are erected throughout the area.
- plus MEDIC
  
  Why here you go Mr. Ewing, previously seen on Boing Boing: http://boingboing.net/2010/01/15/electrosensitives-to.html
- digi_owl
  
  While anecdotal, i recall reading about such a event in Sweden. A mobile carrier erected a tower within view of a suburban area and the very next day the local doctor got all kinds odd medical complaints reported. Thing was that the tower was not turned on at the time.
JayByrd

I’m currently reading “In Pursuit of Silence” by George Prochnik, which delves into the psychological effects of audible noise. And I have the feeling that if we could see or hear the increasing cascade over the radio spectrum in recent decades, people would rightly feel assaulted.
It might explain how crazy is the new norm, at least in politics.
I go up into a box canyon sometimes just to get away from it all.
- Moriarty
  
  “It might explain how crazy is the new norm, at least in politics.”
  
  There’s nothing new about crazy.
Patrick Byrne

See now this is funny…cause I become ill and start to hyperventilate WITHOUT some sort of radio communication device next to me at all times…

How do people live without google being available at all times?
Lobster

Now wouldn’t it be interesting if this place had exactly the same exposure as everywhere else in the country…
dculberson

My first reaction:

http://files.sharenator.com/not_this_shit_again_RE_Count_to_100_Revised-s480x552-220275.jpg
Brainspore

“…it’s the only place in the world that in my opinion is protected,” Schou told The Daily.

The radio waves were attacking her opinion? Maybe she should see if her dentist can do anything about those thought transceivers the CIA implanted in her teeth.
awjt

Instead of freaking out and moving, they could make a Faraday cage in their bedroom as a refuge. Or unwire their house and Faraday cage the whole thing. These people are not only crazy; they aren’t very educated either.
- flowergardenslayer
  
  Or unwire their house and Faraday cage the whole thing. These people are not only crazy; they aren’t very educated either.
  
  A REAL faraday cage large enough to cover a good sized house is pretty darned expensive, think tens of thousands. Far cheaper and easier to move.
  - awjt
    
    The point is that there are alternatives that are more logical. A small faraday cage in the bedroom might run you about, what, a thousand bucks if you do it up right? And the silent valley isn’t so silent anyways…
- wrecksdart
  
  I though the same thing until I listened to the NPR story covering some of these same people. IIRC, many had doctorates or masters degrees–I wouldn’t consider them to be uneducated, but the tried and true “correlation is not causation” seems to ring true.
CSBD

I don’t know of anyone who actually has this… but it does seem like something my sister-in-law will contract as soon as she reads about it on the net.

She has a weird propensity for developing non-verifiable “syndromes and diseases” that she is able to self diagnose and treat herself.

The treatment mostly consists of behaving like an evil shrew and trying to control the lives of everyone else around her through forcing them to adhere to whatever BS she says will help lessen her chances of X, Y, or Z causing problems.

Somehow, nothing really helps except avoiding her entirely.

Maybe I should send her a google maps trip plan from her door to “The Quiet Zone”
- awjt
  
  I had a girlfriend like that. I dumped her because of it.
  - CSBD
    
    I’m not quite sure of a “legal” way to dump my brothers wife.
    - awjt
      
      You could one-up her and suddenly become allergic to her.
huskerdont

I always wondered why I could never get no cell service on the way to the gul-danged ski resort.
TheHowl

Make a fuss –> declare that the fuss indicates controversy –> teach the controversy!

Hey, I think I’ve heard this one before. ;)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

Now, now, now . . . there’s an awful lot of judgemental, mean-sprited comments here.

I think we need to learn to accept the concern and anxiety these people feel, even though we know it is psychosomatic hogwash, and figure out a way to make money off of them.
- ChicagoD
  
  That thing about Faraday Cages made me think that some cheap materials and “copper” spray paint might be a real growth industry. Maybe a beekeeper’s helmet painted “copper.”
Glen Able

Neutrinos make me all itchy, any idea where I can hide from them?
CH

Didn’t we just do this?

Edit: Ahh, never mind… I totally missed that the previous BoingBoing article was mentioned at the end.
geekcalif

Finally!!! I can put away my aluminum foil hat.
cosyne

is it me, or did we just have this discussion last month?
http://boingboing.net/2011/09/13/in-west-virginia-wi-fi-refugees-seek-shelter-from-electromagnetic-oppression.html
http://twitter.com/loveybean Vivek Krishnamurthy

I wonder if microwave ovens are also banned in this EM free zone. After all, they operate on the same 2.4 GHz as Wi-Fi and most cordless phones. And as anyone who’s experienced their Wi-Fi flake out while reheating leftovers can attest, microwave ovens are known to leak EM radiation from time to time.
- Lobster
  
  What ever happened to tinnitus?
Duridy Duridy

You would think that some of the people who claim to have this sensitivity would be willing to be tested, in order to prove they aren’t crazy, and to get taken seriously. A nice double-blind study would quickly put this to rest one way or the other, at least for reasonable non-crazy people (the crazies of course would of course come up with many explanations about why the test failed to show anything).
Bill Beaty

> Stick one of these sufferers in a Faraday cage with
> a RF emitter. Don’t tell them whether the emitter
> is turned on or not. Ask them if they’re having
> symptoms. See if the symptoms correlate to the
> emitter being turned on or not.

Did so, they reported intense pain on approach to the emitter (they didn’t know it was there, but I did. Single blind.)

Repeated it double-blind, same result: intense pain while emitter on, nothing while emitter off. This was just a quick uncontrolled test, 300KHz 300W source, and 3MHz 1KW source, many meters from electrically short antenna hidden behind a wood wall, didn’t have a field meter.

So the real issue is probably this: a large number of crazies, plus a small number of genuine reports. If you ask for test volunteers, you’ll find the crazies and decide that the whole thing is idiotic.

And besides, we’re allowed to cherry-pick evidence when well-tested theory says the evidence must be wrong. After all, evidence must never be allowed to alter theory! :)

60Hz b-field causes DNA breakage! Oh Noes!
http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1289/ehp.6355
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_G7SMCZJ7XB2D6JY7DOUCBMXOJM andy
  
  Um, exactly HOW close were these people to this 300w and 1 Kw(!) radio? Feeling the output of your 50mw wifi access point is likely imaginary. Lets not forget that radio is basically AC current across a gap. If I turn up the wattage high enough ANYONE will be able to feel it. Ever had an MRI that cause peripheral nerve stimulation? Don’t get me wrong, I thing the people claiming this are most likely imagining it. But EMR is still energy. Crank it up high enough and you’ll get your reaction eventually.
subhan

I suspect a lot of these people have disorder similar to DOP (delusions of parisitosis), where the sufferer believes in the face of all evidence that they are inhabited by parasites that cause them all sorts of problems. Psychotropics often help, but patients generally refuse any treatment not aimed directly at controlling their ‘parasites’, ESPECIALLY medications that might lend credence to the fact that the symptoms are psychosomatic and they don’t have parasites.
oohShiny

I wonder how they feel when they go through those security gates in libraries and shopping malls. I know they bother me, well, some of them, but only because they make the most godawful high-pitched noise that sets my teeth on edge. [FWIW I'm certain I'm not detecting the EM field, but just hearing a high-frequency noise generated by whatever cheap mechanism is being used with them] I wonder if there’s any chance the people who do pass a single or double blind test have an uncommon ability to *detect* strong EM fields (or in the case of a 1Kw radio behind the next wall, hear the device generating it), and whose psychological makeups have converted that to a sense of discomfort… just throwing stuff out there.
montgomery_prof

This was on on Slashdot a while back, and an engineer posted that the valley is actually awash in RF, but at the specific frequencies needed/allowed by the agencies working there. I’m sorry I don’t have time to verify that this morning; I just spotted a task I need to do before 8am….
jdk998

Odd, then this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/opinion/an-electrifying-ancestor.html?_r=1&ref=opinion