Allergic to Modern Technology?

Filed in archive Other Allergies on March 25, 2007

As I read this headline, 'I'm allergic to modern living', I can't help go "Huh?" Here, take a look at an excerpt:

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.

Debbie Bird's eyelids swell to three times their size when she is exposed to microwaves. As a consequence, Mrs Bird, a health spa manager, has transformed her home into an EMF-free zone to try and stay healthy.

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.

While I am inded inclined to believe that electromagnetic smog can't be healthy, I agree with one of the readers who left a comment over there who said that it is erroneous to call it an allergy. Sure, the rashes and symptoms may be similar to an allergic reaction, but let's not forget that true allergies are caused by allergens, usually proteins, whihc trigger an immune reaction. This woman might really be sensitive to electromagnetic smog, and I do pity her because I myself can no longer imagine living without modern technology, but it is still wrong to call it an allergy.