Father’s Day – International Electrosensitivity Day

My history of sensitivity possibly began after my apprenticeship working at an aircraft company where I was an apprentice electronics technician for 4.5 years starting in the year 1980. Although mine was not one of the trades doing radio or radar we were exposed to radar from the nearby runways on a daily basis (training was done near an airport).  At the time I did not realize that  radar was causing me any harm, although, in hindsight, the symptoms experienced were those of EHS/EMFIS which have grown hugely with the ‘progress’ of the cell phone industry.

I have been consciously aware of the symptoms (nausea, mental fog, exhaustion etc.) since just before the cell phones came to South Africa – when I think pilot programmes were being done on certain areas of the population without much awareness by the South African public at all. These symptoms have definitely got worse as the various generations of cell technology have been unleashed onto the population of the entire world. So I’d say I had been aware that I was being bombarded for about 15 years at least but, as mentioned, this may go back a lot earlier (to times when I was not aware of the source of my discomfort).

These years of conscious awareness were accompanied by ever decreasing ability and the decline in my career activities like from being a premier league tennis player to not playing or coaching at all. And from being in a profitable computer programming job to trying to put together part time work and web page design type work from home, where I have taken protective measures.

Another major complication in the last 12 years is the development of an ongoing skin disease with lesions that resemble large boils and just don’t go away (no matter how many dermatologists etc. were visited). Atopic dermatitis is the (useless) diagnosis. As is so often the case for those with EHS/EMFIS it was suggested that my skin condition might be psychological.

For the last 10 years my standard of living has been too low to afford private medical consultations.

I lost my Siberian kitty cat due to squamous cell carcinoma, supposedly caused by sun exposure but i have my doubts. All I can say is that she would (especially over these last years) choose spots where there was extensive metal shielding to lie in, not least of which is my bed that is covered by a complete Faraday cage and not any of the other beds.

In May 2018, we first saw construction on a tower 10 meters from our house in a neighbor’s yard. I thought the radiation was harmless and that most of it would pass over our home. I am a semi-retired electrical engineer and researcher. Then I learned that trees were dying around a tower on a country club. Research soon showed me the dangers. The tower was powered up on 1 July 2018. In August, my wife and I noticed a sharp increase in tinnitus and also some hearing loss. In September, we both got more and more health problems and in October I had to go to a health clinic to recover somewhat.

The worst symptoms for me were headaches and nausea accompanied by a significant loss of mental ability. I could not remember things like phone numbers. I could not spell. My reading comprehension and grammar dropped dramatically. I could list quite a few more health issues that people ascribe to “old age”. I am 70 years old and I have great genes so these problems are premature. They disappear if I spend some time in a low radiation area.

I was needing more and more sleep and complained to my wife about it. She joked that I should wear an aluminium foil hat. I had a two hour afternoon sleep with one I made and realized that my dreams were clear and not scrambled. But more importantly I woke refreshed. This was easily repeatable.

I saw the changes in my wife. Her hands started to shake and tremble. She got tired and stressed. She blamed it on work and life but I pointed out that there was no change from her usual busy life and that she was able to cope before.

I could feel the high radiation spots in my side. A doctor pointed out that I had a type of neuroma there, which is an injury to nerves creating a patch of nerves without the insulating myelin sheath. This makes them act like an antenna.

I then purchased a directional microwave meter which confirmed the hot-spots. So did a cell company test. The worst was in our kitchen. I moved into our garage. My wife was exposed to high face levels in the kitchen and in December she was diagnosed with a facial basal cell carcinoma. Luckily it was cut out completely.

In December, the High Court ordered the tower powered down on the basis of a prima facie case of both health harm and fraudulent approval. It took 4 to 6 weeks for us to recover. My wife’s hands stopped shaking, our headaches disappeared and so did the tiredness and stress. In January, the cell company turned on the tower against the court order knowing it would harm and sicken me. My wife complained of a “tower headache” and I checked with the meter. It was on for 36 hours and the illness caused me to miss a filing date by one day and the judge would not condone it. He chose to believe the false report from a metering company. This is how the industry tries to win legal battles.

When the tower was legally turned on again in March 2019, we lined our ceiling with aluminium foil. The readings dropped by a factor of 10 to 100 times. But I started getting headaches and nausea. I began wearing personal shielding in our home, twenty-four hours a day. We moved our bedroom to the middle of the house where the readings were the lowest. This helps me cope and my symptoms have mostly disappeared. We have made arrangements to rent an apartment at the end of June to escape the radiation while we fight on. We cannot sell our house. No-one will buy it, even with a 40% discount.

On 9 May 2019, I submitted an urgent appeal to the Constitutional Court to have the tower turned off and to overturn the condonation dismissal. Although urgent and based on ongoing harm, there has been silence. That is not a just response to an urgent appeal from a citizen. I fear the telecommunications industry may have influence in all the spheres of government. Media is not taking up the fight. They may fear losing advertising.

It is clear that people are suffering from stress, new types of cancer and lots of health problems. The telecommunications industry makes them blame everything but the real cause. The ugly truth is that cell tower radiation is turning out to be worse than tobacco smoking and far more deadly.

Ultimately the truth will come out. It will be too late for those around us who lived next door to a tower and died of cancer. And for those whose children and grandchildren are damaged – permanently.

(Source: Clive Granville. Randpark Ridge, Randburg, Gauteng.)