A New Mexico news channel reports that a Santa Fe group is demanding the City remove Wi-Fi from public buildings.  They claim that they are sensitive to the wireless signals that are emitted from wireless and cell phone signals.  They also claim that these signals cause medical problems, and they are being discriminated against as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

One of the whiners is quoted below:

Arthur Firstenberg says he is highly sensitive to certain types of electric fields, including wireless Internet and cell phones. "I get chest pain and it doesn't go away right away," he said. Firstenberg and dozens of other electro-sensitive people in Santa Fe claim that putting up Wi-Fi in public places is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Well Arthur, I would like to call your little bluff.  I am offering to conduct a very simple double-blind placebo-controlled test to determine if you can in fact detect electromagnetic signals like the ones you describe.  I will offer you $10,000 cash if you can demonstrate your 'ability'.

It would be a simple test really.  You just would have to tell me if an electronic device that you claim causes you such terrible distress is transmitting a signal or not.  Neither you nor the examiner would know if the device is transmitting.  I am pretty sure that you would not pass the test.  If you do, you would be the first person able to do so in medical literature.

I am sure many of you are thinking that Arthur is a crackpot, but he is not alone.  This is a really trendy thing in Europe.  Sweden has their own Association of the Electro-Sensitive, and there are 30 support groups around the world.  The UK is spending tons of money on research into the health effects of cell phones.  One British researcher said cell phones are more dangerous than smoking. 

Well, I'd better stop typing now.  This computer is probably giving me eyeball cancer or something.