Phil and Nancy’s story

Introduction Exposure New research HPA (UK) Principles Ethics Definitions Mobile mad? Reports Glossary

The facts:

Extremely low frequency pulsed electromagnetic radiation does affect living organisms.

That means you and me. We are the experiment.

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Phil and Nancy’s story: their own words

In 1985, my wife was diagnosed with relapsing remitting Multiple Sclerosis at Atkinson Morley Hospital in London.

Ten years later, in 1995 an MRI scan by a consultant neurologist in Canada confirmed this initial diagnosis. Dr Rice wrote: ‘the magnetic image showed just a few plaques, enough to be confident with the initial diagnosis, but there is no major burden of disease’.

In 1996 we returned to our home after spending 6 years working in the Far East. Both my wife and I had held senior management positions and were looking forward to a less stressful lifestyle. My wife’s health was good; she was ambulatory and walking a couple of miles a day. The rate of relapses was 1 every 3 to 4 years.

Shortly after we returned, the 90 foot mast at the rear of our property was targeted by the mobile phone operators as a site for their transmitters. Previously the only equipment on the mast consisted of microwave dishes used by the then Midlands Electricity and a Hutchinson paging transmitter.

During 1996 and 1997, in spite of our protests Orange and T-mobile were allowed to place transmitters on the mast. During this same period my wife’s health started to rapidly deteriorate. Her relapse rate increased to 2 and sometimes 3 relapses per year until it became hard for her to walk without assistance. We were baffled as to why the disease had taken such a drastic and sudden turn for the worse.

In 1998 she went to Canada for three months. She needed wheelchair assistance in the airport, but on her return, I was stunned to see her walk out pushing her own luggage trolley. There was a marked improvement. However, within a few weeks, her condition started to deteriorate again and we began to wonder if there was a correlation between the emissions from the mast and the increased frequency of her relapses. After some research, we discovered that studies had been duplicated indicating that microwaves could affect the porosity of the blood brain barrier. Could this then be the cause of her sudden downturn in health?

We decided to move and put the house on the market but were unable to sell it as no one wanted to live 20 feet from the mast. Aside from the perceived health risk, the mast is a monstrosity and blight on the landscape. It looms over our back garden.

We couldn’t sell and couldn’t afford to buy another property, so I looked to how else I could protect ourselves from the emissions and decided to install a layer of aluminium foil on the floor of the loft, and within several weeks my wife’s mobility started to improve, within three months she was walking again, albeit with the aid of a walker; my health also improved, I had been suffering from lethargy, short term memory loss, and vertigo.

At this point my wife is safe from the effects of the mast as long as she remains inside the house. She is not able to use the garden and spending any time outside seems to aggravate her MS symptoms – tingling, numbness, loss of balance, loss of strength in her legs.

In the spring of 2004 O2 Airwave installed the TETRA Police transmitter.

The effects were immediate and devastating; the following effects were reported by both of us to Dr Adams at Ashley surgery: stabbing Pains in the shoulders, vertigo, blurred vision, pressure band around the head, headaches, cramping of hands, confusion and lack of concentration, disorientation, dizziness, dry cough, intestinal gas / bloating, hot spots on the spine, tingling in hands and legs, lethargic, localised skin heating, loss of muscle function in legs and hands, dry metallic taste in mouth, ringing in the ears, tingling humming pain in arms and legs as if being continually shocked.

Over the next two weeks I pleaded with all the relevant parties, Newcastle planning, O2 Airwave, their agent Walden Telecom, and Staffordshire Police to turn down the power output. Eventually Airwave came and measured the output. Coincidentally, the day they measured the levels were low, but after they had been the levels went up again. My wife was in agony – severe pain and loss of muscle function she was spending days away to get relief.

I had no choice but to send my wife away while I tried to sort out the problem.

Airwave eventually offered to have me tested for electro sensitivity, by Dr Alan Preece at Bristol University, Dr Preece advised Airwave of the equipment he needed and the protocols he would use, no testing ever took place.

Desperate to find a solution I converted one bedroom into a faraday cage, this managed to suppress the signals, and many of my symptoms disappeared, however I was confined to one room, only using the rest of the house for short periods, eventually I had to cover the roof and walls in steel mesh in order to stay in the house.

My wife has now returned and we are struggling to cope with the situation, on wet days the electric fields flowing over the screening can be quite painful to endure as we have both become very sensitive to the electric fields; in fact we avoid certain areas of the Potteries, where the electric fields are high, we can feel the presence of DECT phones and wireless internet routers. I can only use a computer if it’s running on a battery.