The waves! They burn!

So there's a blurb about my adopted hometown on Consumerist. It links to this article in the Chicago Tribune. Short version: A guy here in Santa Fe is now suing his neighbor for using an iPhone. Really. He says he has "electromagnetic sensitivities"; he claims he bought the house thinking somehow it would be a refuge from...well, electromagnetic radiation. He's also been pissing all over Santa Fe's attempt to get some sort of municipal wi-fi going on.

So, the first thing: electromagnetic radiation includes things like, oh, visible light. And ultraviolet radiation, and infrared radiation, not to mention straight-up radio waves and such. So claiming you have "electromagnetic sensitivities" is completely meaningless. Everyone does - ever gotten sunburn? Congratulations, you have electromagnetic sensitivities! Have you heard of someone getting radiation poisoning? Electromagnetic sensitivities!

Two: If you're going to sue for someone aggravating a medical condition, it's courteous to produce some sort of evidence that said condition actually exists. That does not mean a note from your doctor who you apparently visited with your lawyer (as per a recent article in the Santa Fe Reporter). That means multiple, scientific, controlled, peer-reviewed studies. "My doctor said so" is not scientifically valid proof.

Three: He lists dimmer switches as something that his neighbor was using that bothered him, to which I say: what? Dimmer switches work by, in some way, altering the voltage a lightbulb gets. I know that given the already-flaky claims this is just quibbling, but even if I did believe that my cell phone or wireless router or laptop was somehow giving you muscle pain (which I don't), I'd be pretty skeptical if you claimed that a device which, at it's most basic level, shunts some of the electrical current through a resistor is giving you muscle pain. Really?

Four: Here is a map of where this house he bought is, on Barela Street in Santa Fe. As you can see, it's not exactly remote. Santa Fe one of those places where it's still pretty easy to find a place to live that's way the hell out in the boonies. The state of New Mexico has an average of 16 people per square mile - it's not particularly hard to find someplace in this state with a couple dozen miles between you and your neighbors. If someone using electronic devices can cause half a million dollars worth of damage (he's suing for roughly that), maybe instead of living in downtown Santa Fe, you'd prefer to live on the outskirts of Santa Fe, or even further away from the city out in the middle of nowhere, where the only electronic interference is your own.

Five: Santa Fe sometimes is a great town but my god do I hate that things like this happen here.