New technology blamed for Ilkley student's living nightmare

9:11am Thursday 10th July 2008

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Every day is a living nightmare for Andy. Just a year ago the future looked bright. He had a loving family, a beautiful flat and he was enjoying studying for a law degree. Now he feels as though he is walking through a horror movie with no way out.

Everywhere he goes he feels under attack from an all-pervasive but unseen enemy he is powerless to do anything about. And as he faces an increasingly bleak future, suicide has often seemed like the only option.

Andy, 27, is one of a growing number of people who say their lives have been blighted by the very fabric of modern society. He says he is made desperately ill by microwave radiation from mobile phone masts, wi-fi computer routers and cordless digital phones - and he has been driven to increasingly extreme measures in an attempt to escape their effects.

He described how his comfortable existence in an executive flat had been replaced with days spent living in a field and nights in his parents' basement in Ilkley.

Andy is a member of electro-sensitivity UK (esuk), which has 3,000 members who are convinced their crippling symptoms are caused by microwave radiation.

The condition often sparks disbelief and ridicule among the public and Andy has asked us not to use his real name because of the stigma that could be attached to members of his family. But he has no doubt it does exist - and his concerns are backed up by a number of scientists.

In Sweden, electro sensitivity is a recognised disability and it is being recognised by doctors and scientists around the world, says Andy. The Irish Doctors' Environmental Association has also voiced its concern about current safety levels for exposure to electro-magnetic radiation.

In a statement issued recently, it says: "The Irish Doctors' Environmental Association believes that a sub-group of the population are particularly sensitive to exposure to different types of electro-magnetic radiation. The electro-sensitivity experienced by some people results in a variety of distressing symptoms which must also be taken into account when setting safe levels for exposure to non-ionising radiation and when planning the siting of masts and transmitters."

The Bavarian Parliament has advised schools not to install wireless LAN networks because of concerns about their effects on children's health. And a Canadian university has banned wi-fi until it can be satisfied electric and magnetic fields exposure does not pose a health risk to young people.

In America, more than a decade ago the New York surgeon Arthur Firstenberg was already warning that "microwave radiation is an imminent danger to all of us more or less equally, and that for our common survival we must immediately halt the expansion of wireless communications upon this earth."

Now a UK scientist is reported to have said there could be links between the spate of suicides among young people in Bridgend and the proximity of their homes to mobile transmitter masts. Dr Roger Coghill, who sits on a government advisory committee on mobile radiation, was quoted in a national newspaper saying there is circumstantial evidence that the masts may have triggered depression among the young people who took their own lives.

Andy admits he has considered suicide on many occasions because of the devastating impact the condition has had on his life.

For him, the problems began in 2004 when he bought a wi-fi router for his family home "Three months later I found myself with constant headaches, fatigue, blurry vision, nosebleeds, tingles on my face and a generally unwell feeling all the time," he said.

Soon he started passing out and spent months having tests and scans to find out what the problem was. Relief came unexpectedly when he disconnected the wi-fi. Within weeks his symptoms had all but vanished - but nobody made the connection. He found his health rapidly deteriorating again when he started studying for a law degree in Leeds and moved into a flat where, unknown to him, he was surrounded by wireless technology. Soon all his symptoms had returned with a vengeance.

"It got worse and worse, to the point where I started waking up and being violently sick, with chronic headaches and fatigue, unable to study or concentrate for any period of time, or even be in my flat for more than one hour."

In his search for an answer, he looked at carbon monoxide poisoning and had his water supply tested, until eventually his GP suggested the possible effects from low level radiation being given off by wireless technology. To start with, Andy was sceptical. "I don't believe in anything unless I can see it," he said. "I don't believe in horoscopes or ghosts and I have never been somebody who believes in conspiracy theories."

Although he dismissed the idea at first, he got in touch with esuk and, on their advice, bought a microwave radiation detector which found very high levels in his flat coming from neighbouring flats. Since then he has been living in a field, returning home to the basement in his parents' house only at night when neighbours turn off their wi-fis and phones. He describes his life as like a horror movie.

"I am now trapped, living in a field because during the day it is the only place I've found in the area which is far enough away from masts not to fry me."

He is still working on his course, going in to university for small blocks of time, but says many others in his position have been forced to give up work and live on benefits, reduced to being prisoners in their own homes.

And as he struggles to maintain any semblance of a normal life, Andy says the future looks increasingly bleak.

"I can't go anywhere for more than an hour without almost passing out. With wi-fi and digital phones now everywhere and with digital TV coming out this year along with wi max, I feel sometimes I really won't be able to cope."

Andy said he had already had to leave one field because of a new dish on top of a mast And now his new daytime "home" near a layby is under threat because of increasingly powerful microwave radiation from another mast.

He has been invited to join other sufferers in a refuge in the mountains of the Andes, but says he would be physically unable to make the journey.

Now he believes his only hope is a US military tent which costs £3,000 and is lined with copper and silver.

"I am pinning my hopes on this really," he said. "At least I would have somewhere I could go, but you can't just live in a tent."

Once, he had hopes of a normal life and a family, but now he sees no way that would be possible."I would like to have a family and a wife, but how can I raise a family in a field," he said. "My whole life is ruined. My main objective is to find somewhere where I can live, somewhere where I don't feel terrible."

And unless the world changes he sees no end to his "miserable existence".

He said: "I am a strong-willed person. I have a family that love and care for me. I have never been short of money or anything, but when this became so frightening I used to think about different ways of killing myself."

But instead of giving in to despair he is determined to do everything he can to highlight the dangers he believes we all face and which he says will only get worse with the ever-increasing spread of modern technology.

Andy is convinced the dangers are being ignored and covered up, He stressed: "I am slowly learning that I have to be optimistic and try to join some of the people who I have met who are doing a tremendous job of trying to highlight and campaign on this whole terrible situation, clinging to the hope that one day this will be widely accepted for what it really is, one massive human experiment."