Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Matt Fisken, a freelance energy adviser, permaculturist and stay-at-home dad who lives in Hartford.
[N]ow that the show “Breaking Bad” is over and has been replaced by spinoff “Better Call Saul,” an important and eye-opening story is beginning to unfold. For the first time in earnest, electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) has entered the mainstream consciousness through actor Michael McKean’s role as Chuck McGill, a law partner on medical leave due to this poorly understood and often debilitating affliction.
Some estimates suggest that 3-5 percent of the population is already sensitive enough to electricity or radio frequency (wireless) signals for it to disrupt their daily lives. Often times, these people are diagnosed with something else altogether like depression, chronic fatigue, multiple sclerosis, ADHD, autism or some other disorder.
Because we have so thoroughly surrounded our lives with electromagnetic radiation, it isn’t easy for people to escape these exposures long enough to actually feel normal. Disease becomes the new normal and connecting the dots is like solving a Rubik’s Cube. It might be compared to being stuck in a bad relationship or an addiction accompanied by hopelessness that health and happiness is unattainable.
Like many ailments, it’s tempting to believe that EHS won’t happen to you. I probably wouldn’t have considered it either until it became painfully clear that my otherwise good health was intermittently deteriorating when I spent too much time in radiated spaces, primarily the office in which I worked. Abandoning an otherwise enjoyable career is hard enough for people with illnesses that our health care system knows how to treat, but a growing number of people for whom EHS is alienating from the world have few places left to turn.
The multi-pronged dilemma becomes: How do I retain health when a toxin that makes me sick is ever-spreading? How do I find work that doesn’t make me ill? How do I support my family and protect them from overexposure? How do I share what I’ve learned with others so that they can avoid EHS? How do I do things like go shopping, go to the library, or bring my child to the museum when the experience is akin to an asthmatic with a small child entering a room full of cigarette smokers?
The fact is that every one of us is an electrical being and inherently susceptible to biological interference from unnatural and elevated frequencies, the likes of which our ancestors never experienced.
Reactions I get from friends, family, doctors and neighbors are mixed, but they are usually curiously sympathetic. I’ve also been told, “that must be a difficult thing to concern yourself with,” as though it has been my choice to be affected by wifi, cell phones, smart meters and other devices that largely did not exist when I was born. I consider myself extremely lucky to have figured this out because, largely, my condition has been improving. I view my EHS as an invaluable gift like my other five senses. I’ve also experienced catharsis and satisfaction by sharing my experience and helping others negotiate EHS and avoid radiation.
The fact is that every one of us is an electrical being and inherently susceptible to biological interference from unnatural and elevated frequencies, the likes of which our ancestors never experienced. While a massive focus is currently on ratcheting levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, I think it’s more important to understand that exploding levels of electrical pollution is putting current and future generations in jeopardy.
It remains to be seen whether “Better Call Saul’s” portrayal of an extreme case of EHS will be a good thing or not. Will viewers watch this series and jump to the conclusion that Chuck’s condition is as fictional as the blue crystal meth produced by Walter White in “Breaking Bad”? Or will it encourage people to look more closely at this complicated intersection between modern technology and human biology? After researching EHS for his role, Michael McKean has said he thinks, “it’s a genuine thing.”
We all have the choice to be afraid of the unknown, or to try to understand the very things that challenge our cultural preconceptions and vices. In all likelihood, many more people will become sensitized to anthropogenic electromagnetic radiation before business owners, school administrators, doctors, librarians and lawmakers understand that the price of flooding our public spaces with microwaves far outweighs the convenience of ubiquitous wireless accessibility.
