Posted on 01/11/2010 8:04:30 AM PST by Dallas59
(Santa Fe New Mexican, The (NM) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 8--A Santa Fe man who says he suffers from electromagnetic sensitivity is suing his next-door neighbor for refusing to turn off her cell phone and other electronic devices.
Arthur Firstenberg, who has actively opposed the proliferation of wireless systems in public buildings, claims he has been made homeless by Raphaela Monribot's rejection of his requests.
"Within a day of (Monribot) moving in, I began to feel sick when I was in my house," Firstenberg wrote in his affidavit. "(Monribot's) house is located 25 feet from my house. Further, because the two houses at one time were on a single lot, their electrical systems are fed from a single main cable. In fact, the electric meter for my house is mounted on (Monribot's) house. Electromagnetic fields emitted in (Monribot's) house are transmitted by wire directly into my house." Firstenberg said that when he visited Monribot in her new house, she told him she had purchased a new iPhone and leaves it turned on at all times so family members can reach her. When he asked her if she could use a land line in the house, she "flatly refused without explanation," he said.
"I also observed a computer in use, compact fluorescent lights, dimmer rheostats, and other sources of electromagnetic radiation," he said. Monribot "agreed to phase out the fluorescent lights, but she declined to consider any limitation on her cell phone, or to turn off her computer when not in use, or to replace dimmer switches. In fact, a few days later, (Monribot) installed a wireless network for her computer. All of these devices emitted electromagnetic radiation and triggered my EMS with life-threatening reactions, which included a heart arrhythmia." Firstenberg said he looked into separating the utility connections between the two houses, but Public Service Company of New Mexico has not yet suggested any solution. He said Monribot inquired about the PNM discussions last fall, saying, "I am feeling a bit guilty." Firstenberg's motion is accompanied by dozens of notes from doctors, some dating back more than a decade, about his sensitivities. Firstenberg, 59, said he began to experience stomach pains, memory loss and other symptoms as a medical student at the University of California, Irvine, in 1980. Since then, various physicians have diagnosed him as being extraordinarily sensitive to both chemicals and electromagnetic radiation, he said.
Since moving to Santa Fe five years ago, Firstenberg has been active in groups that have unsuccessfully tried to stop the city from installing wireless systems at City Hall and public libraries. He has also opposed the installation of cell towers in Chimayo and Madrid, a remote monitoring system for the city water system and controlled burns in national forests.
The issue of wireless systems could come to a head Feb. 10, when the City Council considers a new telecommunications ordinance, two franchises for new communication systems and a resolution asking the federal government to allow municipalities to consider health and environment consequences of cell phone towers.
Firstenberg declined to be photographed Thursday outside his home on one-lane Barela Street. The back seat of his car, a Nissan with California license plates, contained the bedding he uses to stay warm at night.
"Everybody's trying to find me," he said. "I'm trying to lay low." Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.
Firstenberg and Monribot, who have homes only 25 feet apart in a west-side neighborhood, both declined to discuss the lawsuit Thursday.
Monribot's actions have effectively ousted Firstenberg from the house he bought last year and forced him to stay with friends or in his car, says a document filed Monday in state District Court by lawyer Lindsay Lovejoy Jr.
Firstenberg "cannot stay in a hotel, because hotels and motels all employ wi-fi connections, which trigger a severe illness," says the request for a preliminary injunction. "If (Firstenberg) cannot obtain preliminary relief, he will be forced to continue to sleep in his car, enduring winter cold and discomfort, until this case can be heard." The case has been assigned to state District Judge Daniel Sanchez, who has yet to set a hearing.
According to an affidavit signed by Firstenberg, Monribot has known about his electromagnetic sensitivity, or EMS, since May 2008, when he hired her to cook meals for him in her home. He said that after he explained his predicament, she began turning off her cell phone and computer "to spare me the pain of EMS." Firstenberg said he began to sublease a house Monribot rented at 247 Barela St. when Monribot went to France, where her husband, Jean-Pierre Monribot, is a citizen and where one of their daughters lives. But, after the landlord threatened eviction because the rent was unpaid, Firstenberg said, he purchased the house on Sept. 26, 2008, for $430,000.
When a house at 246 Casados St. -- which backs up to the one on Barela Street -- came up for rent, Firstenberg said, he notified Monribot, who rented that house in October 2008.
There are some weird things about this story. If I understand correctly, he has known this other person for a while, and sublet his current home from them, but then they stopped paying rent and he bought the place from the lender?
Then he told the other woman about the house behind him, and they are renting it from him? Or from someone else?
There’s a lot of stuff going on.
If I knew I was electro-insensitive for so long, I think I’d be looking for a house well away from other houses. I’d also know about filters I could put on my lines if I really believed there was radiation.
He just needs to wrap his house in tin foil.
I would opt for an inner layer of mylar sandwiched between two sheets of aluminum, encased in a polymer jacket.
I remember those X-ray machines in shoe stores. When I was in my early teens(about 62 years ago) we would pretend we were shoe-shopping just to use the machine.
I’m still here and so are my feet.
He should move out to the ElDorado Housing area....Many have Heat rentention walls which would reduce the radiation of bad waves....
Why doesn’t he just build himself a Faraday cage? He could easily build a Faraday cage around his bed. He could even enclose entire rooms in wire mesh to block signals.
:The Gays were there ahead of him!
They looked for any differences in the populations in terms of behavior or physical health and could not detect any. (I don't believe this was a double blind test because the researchers needed to know which enclosure had “hazardous” radiation.) There were no differences in the health of the two populations.
In addition, numerous human epidemiological studies are available, differentiating populations based on proximity to TV transmitters, microwave towers, etc. Again, no measurable differences.
Sorry, misread that. It's what I get from tab jumping while reading & posting...
I remember working on a radar development job when we began to see “rabbit tracks” in the video on the PPI (display). The program manager, applying his well honed management skills announced, “I want that display squared away!”
Turns out that some guys in the same building were testing one KW transmitter modules in a do-it-yourself screen room (Faraday cage). Even though the loads were resistively terminated and all the cabling was secure, there was still enough radiation streaming into the antenna sidelobes to be visible on the display. We would have needed 165 dB isolation to keep it out.
“Look, Pete, you have two options. One ignore the rabbit tracks, two, shut down transmitter production. Your call.”
It’s not a question of quantity or energy of output. There are different types of EMR (and of other types of radiation) and they all have different effects, many unknown. Massive amounts of EMR from the visible light portion of the spectrum won’t do you any harm at all, but much less exposure to fundamentally lower-energy microwave-spectrum EMR can cause serious harm. We really don’t know much yet about the effects of EMR from wireless communication devices.
Maybe it’s time for me to get the 20kV pulser out of storage and drive up there.
It does wonders for radio reception, right Coug?
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that
he rented the house from her but then bought it for
$430,000 !!!
I don’t think we’re getting all the story.
Santa Fe man demands half a mill for being near iPhone
He is a Scam Artist:
*************************EXCERPT**************************
Mr. Firstenberg isn't new on the Campaigners-Against-Stuff circuit. We reported back in November 2008 how his Cellular Phone Task Force was campaigning to have the government pay for EMF-Free zones where fellow sufferers could hide out.
Since then, he's been trying to find some fellow sufferers and has been running advertisements asking people if the switch off of analogue TV has made them ill. Well, he's asking if the switch on of Digital TV is making them ill, but he waited until analogue was switched off to ask the question -
I challenge you to find actual tin foil for sale in your town. Bet you can't, or that it's at least difficult to find, if you're in a large city.
It's ALUMINUM foil, folks.
It certainly will make you think you have dirty power.
Somebody needs to stick a wifi transmitter under his car or something.
What a jerk.
And yes, EMF fields can cause illness, but only in TREMENDOUS concentrations.
An iphone and couple computers won’t do the job.
This man is just nuts.
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