There's an article on Fox News this week about a town in southwestern England which has started online petition demanding that the town switch off it's municipal wi-fi network because of

"headaches, dizziness, nausea, severe tiredness, brain fog, disorientation and loss of appetite, loss of balance, inability to concentrate, loss of creativity"

Now, were there actual evidence of physical ailments connected to wi-fi and other electromagnetic fields, and there isn't, I could see headaches or dizziness. But "brain fog?!?!? "Loss of creativity!?!?" Due to the large proportion of new age lifestyle people living there, I tend more to think that something that they're smoking is causing there "brain fog". Time after time, the folks who are complaining about the effects of EM radiation are also spouting nonsense about chi, positive energies, acting on advice from their herbalist or "complementary practitioners", and of course government conspiracies with the all evil "big business":

The science hasn't really got into the mainstream because the government won't make decisions which will affect big business, even if it concerns everyone's health.

Despite the fact that numerous studies have been done attempting to connect EM radiation to actual, measurable physical effects, stories like this continue to appear. The "victims" cite no more than anecdotal evidence that EM radiation is making them sick, and when subjected to double-blind studies are not able to make a distinction between being exposed to EM fields and being told that they're being exposed with a rate no better than a random guess. It's more likely that the symptoms are psychosomatic and linked to what's called the "nocebo" effect, where if someone believes that something is harming them enough, they will actually start to manifest the symptoms. This is, of course, followed by the placebo effect where someone sells them something expensive, yet completely useless, junk that magically cures their symptoms. Like this lady, here.

What these people fail to realize is that they get a greater dose of radiation from standing in the sun for a few minutes than they do making a cell phone call or being in a wireless hot spot. Some claim that the microwaves from these source are cooking them and the entire planet as they become more prevalent. Sure, microwave ovens and wi-fi routers operate at 2.4Ghz, but microwave ovens operate at levels of hundreds, or thousands of watts. Whereas a wi-fi router operates at about 0.1 watts.

More than anything, I think these are cases of fear of what people don't understand which play on their psyches which makes them feel sick. It doesn't help that there are support groups, shady snake oil dealers and doctors who prey upon this folks and just reinforce their fear for monetary gain.

These people could genuinely need help, but the help they need doesn't come in the form of a silver-dipped polyester beekeeper's hat, herbal remedies or a stick of wax. What they need is real, psychiatric help to get them over their fears of the unknown, or maybe even a quick slap across the face.

You never know. It might actually help.