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| 'I'm allergic to modern living' |
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| By LIZ HULL -Last updated at 15:29pm on 22nd March 2007 |
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| For most people talking on a mobile phone, cooking dinner in the microwave or driving in a car is simply part of modern living in 21st century Britain. |
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But completing any such tasks is impossible for Debbie Bird - because she is allergic to modern technology. |
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The 39-year-old is so sensitive to the electromagnetic field (EMF) or 'smog' created by computers, mobile phones, microwave ovens and even some cars, that she develops a painful skin rash and her eyelids swell to three times their size if she goes near them. |
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| As a consequence, Mrs Bird, a health spa manager, has transformed her home into an EMF-free zone to try and stay healthy. |
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| The walls are all covered in special carbon paint, the windows have a protective film on them and she and her husband, Tony, 45, even sleep under a silver-plated mosquito net to deflect the radiowaves. |
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| 'I can no longer do things that I used to take for granted,' Mrs Bird said last night. 'My day-to-day life has been seriously affected by EMF. |
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'I don't own a microwave. I don't use mobile phones at all. I can't even use a cordless phone. We have a plasma screen TV because the old style one gave out gamma rays, which brought on my reaction. |
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'I can't even get in my friend's BMW. If I do I immediately start getting a headache and my head starts tingling. |
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| 'Even shopping is a problem. I can't go in places like Starbucks where there is Wi-Fi broadband and always have to be aware of my environment.' |
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| Mrs Bird first realised that she was electro-sensitive when she moved with her husband, a writer and environmental consultant, and their eight-year-old daughter, Antonia, to a new apartment in Bowden, near Altrincham, Greater Manchester. |
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| Unbeknown to her, however, her neighbours were all using wireless internet connections and had cordless phones. |
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| 'At first I couldn't sleep,' Mrs Bird added. 'Then I started developing a skin reaction. I had a burning sensation down my face, on my forehead and elbows. I looked like I had been severely burnt on my forehead. |
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| 'I felt very tired all the time and my eye-lids would swell up to three times their size.' |
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| Mrs Bird was referred to a skin specialist, but the problem was so severe the couple decided they had no option but to move to a new home, in nearby Hale, Greater Manchester. |
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| They took electromagnetic readings of the property and set about making it safe. The house was completely re-wired, had clear protective film put on the windows and every wall was painted with black carbon paint, which cost �250 per tin, to deflect the harmful rays. |
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| All the couple's bedroom curtains are also silver-plated and they sleep under a silver-plated mosquito net, which also protects against radiation. |
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| Although the renovation was not cheap, Mrs Bird said it was worth it. Her skin rashes have gone and she no longer has trouble sleeping. Officially in the UK, electro-sensitivity (ES) does not exist as a medical condition. |
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| Doctors say there is little scientific evidence to back up a link between EMF and poor health. They claim the symptoms, often attributed to flu or viruses, are psychosomatic. |
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| But campaigners disagree. They reckon around 500 people are already being treated for ES and as many as five per cent of the population could be affected. |
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| Rod Read, director of Electro-SensitivityUK, said: 'I have seen hundreds of people who exhibit symptoms they directly attribute to the electrical items around them. |
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| 'But it is a politically incorrect illness, the Government or electronic companies don't want people thinking their mobile phones or microwaves are dangerous. |
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| 'In the past doctors have dismissed symptoms as something like flu, but the pathology is now established. It has a huge detrimental physical effect and stops people living normal lives.' |
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=443717&in_page_id=1770 |
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