Brainwaves

By Chris Gledhill, Managing Director, PDMS

I have an aunt who is electro-sensitive. Her arms go numb and she starts to feel dizzy if she gets within about 100 yards of a mobile phone - at least, she does if she happens to know it’s there. This particular aunt is also German and a keen believer in homeopathy, both factors which appear to predispose her to a fascinating array of psychosomatic conditions. Interestingly, according to one of my unimpeachably reliable online sources, electro-sensitivity affects up to 8% of people in Germany, about 5% in Sweden (which also has a fantastic welfare state) and virtually nobody in Japan.

Joking aside it is a little dizzying to stop and think for a moment about the sheer volume and diversity of the information which is constantly washing over us in various electro magnetic forms. At this moment I am being bombarded with radiation by several local radio stations whose choice of music may not be to my taste; the entire output of the eastern European ‘entertainment’ industry is being beamed in via a variety of satellites regardless of our desire or ability to decode the signal; my daughter’s instant messaging chatter is clogging up our home wireless network and we are regularly zapped by our mobile phones as they check in with the local cell.

Switch on a GPS receiver and signals from a dozen satellites will pin your position on the globe to within a few feet. Interestingly enough, this system was put live by the Pentagon in the 1980’s around the same time that my Aunt first realized that she was a medium and started to receive messages from another plane - but I’m sure that’s just a coincidence….

Most modern laptops and PDA’s are equipped with several radio transmitters for wireless networking, Bluetooth communication and GSM networks. Switch on a computer in any café in central London and chances are you will be presented with a list of wireless networks offering broadband internet access. Even here in darkest Port St Mary there are at least two other domestic wireless networks within range of our dining table. Like it or not we live in a world so heavily polluted with information bearing rays that we might as well make the most of it.

It was with this in mind that I recently decided to investigate the life enhancing possibilities of Google calendars. As part of their quest for world domination, Google provide a whole host of free software accessible from anywhere with access to the web. One of these applications is a very nice organiser or calendar which I thought would finally be able to replace the nasty old fashioned paper calendar which hangs on our kitchen wall, never seems to have been updated with my work commitments and isn’t there to give me a nudge when I treble book a parents evening. It seemed like such a good idea, everything in one place, accessible from work or from that café in London; the kids could even keep their own schedules up to date themselves! OK that is a bit fanciful even for me – but you get the general drift.

The problem, as was pointed out by wiser council, is that despite being available over the airwaves from anywhere and everywhere, it won’t be available in the kitchen when the phone rings and you need to arrange something now. So for now at least the nirvana of high tech domestic harmony has eluded me. If only I was electro-sensitive enough to read that calendar without the aid of a laptop!

Finally, by way of an olive branch to my much maligned relative who hopefully doesn’t subscribe to Money Media, I should point out that too much exposure to microwaves probably isn’t a good idea as anyone who has ever tried to boil an egg in a microwave will be able to testify. A quick review of the UK health protection agency website www.hpa.org.uk provides access to the latest official reports on the subject which appear to conclude that there is currently no evidence that mobile phones or phone masts represent any danger to the health of the general population, although there is still a view that children may be more vulnerable to adverse effects and should limit their use of mobiles to some extent – if only!