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Sunday, April 29, 2007 7:49 AM

The woman who needs a veil of protection from modern life

 

 

The woman who needs a veil of protection from modern life

By VICTORIA MOORE - More by this author » Last updated at 00:38am on 27th April

2007

 

Comments (13)

 

 

 

No, she's NOT a beekeeper. This woman believes that her bizarre headgear can

save her from the dangerous electrosmog all around us. Can she possibly be

right?

 

Before knocking on Sarah Dacre's door, I take the precaution of checking my

mobile phone. It's switched off, as she has requested.

 

" Last time someone came to visit, " she warns, " I started feeling awfully

nauseous. It turned out he had a picture phone with him and had left it switched

on. A picture phone! "

 

She pauses, looking genuinely horrified. Apparently, this type of mobile

automatically sends signals to a local base station every nine minutes - " No

wonder I felt so sick. "

 

We sit down in the living-room of the airy, north London house that, for the

past two years, has been Sarah's refuge from modern life. Save for the absence

of a television, it looks ordinary enough.

 

But beneath the coats of magnolia paint, she points out, the walls are lined

with a special paper that contains a layer of tin-foil; and upstairs, the

windows are hung with a fine, silvery gauze.

 

These aren't idiosyncratic decorating decisions, though. All these silvery

layers are here for a purpose: to keep the 21st century at bay.

 

Sarah, 51, is one of a growing band of people who claim to be experiencing

extreme - and incapacitating - sensitivity to electrical appliances, as well as

to certain frequencies of electromagnetic waves.

 

" Wi-Fi, or wireless broadband networks, seem to be the worst thing, " she says.

 

" Closely followed by mobile phones - particularly if they're being used in an

enclosed space - the base stations of cordless telephones and mobile phone

masts.

 

" I have to restrict the amount of time I spend on the computer or watching

television, and make sure I don't have too many household appliances on at once,

because that sets me off as well. "

 

This may sound bizarre, but there is no doubt that Sarah's symptoms are real.

 

To date, they include hair loss, sickness, high blood-pressure, digestive and

memory problems, severe headaches and dizziness.

 

They strike with such ferocity that, since diagnosing herself as " electrically

sensitive " in May 2005, she has been marooned at home.

 

She can't work. When she wants to phone friends, she has to use a land-line - a

significant advancement, it turns out, because she was so ill at one stage, she

says, that she couldn't even touch an ordinary receiver without feeling a

violent shock pass up her arm.

 

Food shopping is done as rapidly as possible, once a week, at a time carefully

chosen to avoid younger people and their permanently switched-on mobile phones.

 

And she can venture into built-up areas only if she is swathed in a net-and-hat

ensemble made from a special " shielding fabric " that makes her look like a

bee-keeper.

 

" I'm sure people laugh, " she says, " but I don't mind as long as it keeps me

well. "

 

Finding her own solutions - however outwardly bizarre - has been essential

because, for the moment at least, the medical establishment does not even accept

that her condition exists.

 

Fortunately, some individual doctors have been sympathetic to her plight.

 

Dr Sarah Myhill, who is registered with the General Medical Council and

practises privately in Wales, says: " There is no doubt that electrical

sensitivity is a real phenomenon - I have seen too many people affected by

electro-magnetic radiation (EMR) to think otherwise.

 

" Clinically, I nearly always see electrical sensitivity in people who are

already suffering from chemical sensitivity.

 

" There are many symptoms that can be switched on by electrical sensitivity, and

it appears that almost any electro-magnetic frequency can be the cause. "

 

Even so, I cannot help feeling a little sceptical. Is there any suggestion that

ES could be a psychosomatic illness, I ask Sarah (who, in fairness, does not

seem to be particularly highly-strung).

 

" Inevitably, people suggest that, " she says, with a flick of her auburn, Farrah

Fawcett-style hair.

 

" But at one time, ME sufferers were accused of having psychosomatic symptoms and

were ignored as a result. Now, the illness is formally recognised.

 

" Before this, I'd barely had a day ill in my life - I've always been a very

energetic, dynamic person.

 

" I had a career in banking, then in events management, and then I ran my own

television production company.

 

I was always busy and I was always out doing things - skiing, tango lessons,

looking after my son, Josh, who's now 17. I had a very active life and I loved

it.

 

" Now, I have no income because I can't work and I have no choice but to devote

all my energies to fighting to find out more about my allergies. "

 

The first symptoms started about five years ago. At first, Sarah ignored them,

hoping they might be due to tiredness or stress and would simply go away.

 

Gradually, though, her condition deteriorated. And about two years ago, she says

" everything hit at once, like a car crash. As well as the exhaustion and nausea,

I even lost the sight in my right eye. "

 

A stream of doctors, complementary practitioners and Chinese herbalists all

failed to alleviate any of her symptoms or come up with a diagnosis.

 

Instead, she found an answer on Google - through websites such as

electrosensitivity.org.uk.

 

All her symptoms seemed to match those of people who believe they are allergic

to modern life.

 

She lists some of the offending items that were in her home: " I had a burglar

alarm emitting microwave radiation, I used a mobile phone constantly, I had two

cordless phones and countless appliances - all of which have an electromagnetic

field associated with them. "

 

Convinced that she had almost certainly found the cause of her illness, she

ordered, from the internet, some special rolls of foil wallpaper and a fabric

called Swiss bobbinet - a netting made from polyester filaments dipped in

silver.

 

Both promised to " shield " her from any emissions from phone masts or wireless

broadband systems.

 

Within a few weeks of the wallpaper going up and the windows being hung with

netting, she began to feel better.

 

So much so that when she suddenly had an offer on her house, which she had been

desperate to sell for seven months, she decided not to sell after all.

 

Since then, she has gradually managed to find other ways to help her cope.

 

She can use her computer for up to three hours a day, " but only if I keep myself

absolutely detoxed all the time, drinking plenty of water and revolving my meals

so that I don't become sensitive to certain types of food as well. "

 

Her long-term (some would say long-suffering) boyfriend, Rod, a gold and

silversmith who lives in Kent, has been sympathetic, she says. But there have

been unexpected setbacks that might test the happiest of couples.

 

Last month, she had a relapse and started to panic.

 

" I'd been feeling quite bright and energetic; then suddenly, for three nights, I

couldn't sleep, " she says.

 

" I really felt it was back to how it was in the beginning, when I didn't know

what was wrong with me. I was exhausted, developed bladder problems, felt ill.

That's when I decided to run some tests. "

 

Using an " electrosmog detector " - the name given to a device that can apparently

register levels of electromagnetic activity - she checked her bedroom.

 

" And there was radiation streaming in through the one wall that I thought I

hadn't needed to protect. We have some new neighbours, and I think they must

have installed wireless broadband. "

 

To ensure a good night's sleep, Sarah now takes the precaution of swathing

herself in her special silver netting.

 

She is concerned by the increasing spread of wireless networks.

 

" I think it's a terrible mistake, " she says. " Is Wi-Fi going to turn out to be

the tobacco, asbestos or Thalidomide of the 21st century? It's looking that way.

 

" And instead of testing it out properly, what are we doing? We're putting it

into schools, exposing small children to it all day long, and opening up entire

Wi-Fi areas - they've just created a giant new Wi-Fi zone in the City of London.

 

" It horrifies me to think of people in small houses or flats who might be

affected by several overlapping wireless networks at once. "

 

Yet the scientific case for electrosensitivity (ES) is threadbare. The World

Health Organisation's position is that " there is no scientific basis to link ES

symptoms to EMR exposure.

 

" Further, ES is not a medical diagnosis, nor is it clear that it represents a

single medical problem. "

 

This week, Professor David Coggan, a member of the Health Protection Agency's

advisory group on non-ionising radiation, told BBC's Newsnight: " There is quite

a lot of evidence now accumulated on mobile phones and health - and the balance

of evidence overall doesn't point to problems.

 

" There's still uncertainty and there still needs to be further research, but so

far we don't have a concern.

 

" And on that basis, the concern about Wi-Fi is much lower on the scale than,

say, that about pan-global influenza. "

 

Other research has backed the view of the medical and scientific establishment.

 

In one " provocation " study, a number of people who claimed to have electrical

sensitivity were placed in a room with a mobile phone and not told whether or

not it was switched on.

 

Asked by a researcher how they felt, they failed to establish any link between

physical symptoms and the alleged trigger.

 

Sarah Dacre believes that this is because the tests were carried out in an area

with high background electrosmog.

 

" Once you are sensitised, " she says, " that's it.

 

" It's like having a glass of wine - it's cumulative in your system.

 

" You don't stop being drunk once you have finished drinking, so you can't then

be tested sober. "

 

She continues to campaign for electrosensitivity to be recognised as a valid

medical complaint linked to electromagnetic fields.

 

" While I'm up and about, " she says a little sadly, " I'm going to do something

about it. "

 

Add your comment | View all Comments (13)

13 people have commented on this story so far. Tell us what you think below.

 

Here's a sample of the latest comments published. You can click view all to read

all comments that readers have sent in.

 

I feel for Sarah, because I have been diagnosed, by my consultant, as EM

radiation sensitive. Because of pesticide spray exposure 26 years ago, I have

had MCS (multiple chemical sensitivities) as well as sensitivities to all the

food I eat and to natural inhalents. Treatment for that was successful until a

Ham radio enthusiast moved in next door - operating on both UHF and long-wave

frequencies. That triggered the EM sensitivity, resulting in a huge worsening of

dystonia symptoms. I have screened my home, like Sarah did, (not quite finished)

and that has resulted in a reduction of the very fierce head jerking while I am

at home.

I believe that there are electronic 'hot spots' and I live in one of them.

 

- Bettine Symons, Cheltenham, England

 

I have spoken to many people who are affected by those technologies using PULSED

microwave radiation (and it is the pulsing that makes it worse). I have also

seen and heard others suffering from bad headaches, constant sleepless nights,

nose bleeds, and other symptoms without being aware that it might be this

technology or maybe something else. They just keep taking the pills and don't

bother to research.

 

Sarah Dacre is a courageous lady raising awareness for the sake of others and

their children and she has my respect and admiration.

 

I am also a sufferer and know exactly what she goes though and how her life is

affected. I am lucky because I have found a small pocket with little technology

and I am now recovering and living a more normal, but still restricted, life. I

sleep well at night and have very little discomfort or pain. What I have is only

due to walking into lines of TETRA emissions, Wi-Fi frequencies or other

people using mobile phones. The TETRA is the worst.

 

- Sandi, Chichester , West Sussex

 

I have every sympathy for this lady and other people who are suffering modern

day illnesses.

I was as fit as a fiddle until the early nineties when I moved into an office

and ended up suffering from sick building syndrome and eventually ME.

I lost my health, my job and almost my mind and my partner.

What did my employers, their experts and legal team say? - It was down to the

fact I smoked.

 

No matter what people suffer from, there are others in the same boat who can

help, you just have to find them.

 

- Pc, Merseyside