My Personal Story
Sensitization to Radar
That all changed in January of 1999 when I became sensitized to radar. I was working at a Naval Base, and the building I was working in was immediately adjacent to the entrance of Esquimalt Harbour, where the Navy ships had their port. My first sensitization exposure to radar was devastating: the effects were much worse than those of fluorescent lights and computers. I had a long list of symptoms:
- Fatigue that wouldn’t abate with plenty of rest
- Physical weakness
- Abdominal pain
- Nausea
- Headache
- Loose stools
- Gas
- Heart pounding
- Difficulty concentrating and fuzzy thinking
- Light sensitivity (it hurt my eyes to look at fluorescent lights)
- Inflamed sinuses
- Very tight muscles
- Dark “circles” under the eyes
I was sick for at least three weeks following my first experience of being sensitized to radar. Fortunately, the week after I had been sensitized, I had planned to take the week off as vacation, and I could spend most of the time resting. There was no way that I could work during that week; I was incapacitated. I reluctantly went back to work following my vacation. I had to somehow keep working. I struggled with repeated radar exposures and almost died in late 1999.
I started experimenting with various subtle energy devices supposed to help protect against electromagnetic fields, and spent a great amount of money on them, but they did not help much, and many of them even made me sick. It seems that I was sensitive, not only to electromagnetic fields, but to subtle energy as well. My beloved first wife, who is very sensitive, also got sick from many of the EMF protection devices I purchased.
Somehow, I managed to keep alive and working, but it was a losing battle. I knew I would die if I continued to work at the Naval Base, so in July of 2001 I wrote a letter to my supervisor requesting a transfer to another position elsewhere in the public service where I could work in an environment free from radar exposure. I was willing to move across the country, if needed. I was reluctant to make the request for a transfer because I doubted that anyone would take my claim seriously. As expected, my request for a transfer was denied by Health Canada on the grounds that western medical science generally does not recognize hypersensitivity to electromagnetic fields as an illness.
Fortunately, however, I was given permission to telecommute four days per week from my home in Sooke; I would be required to work at the Naval Base only one day per week. Although I was not very productive due to this arrangement, I did manage to stay alive because I was able to recover sufficiently from radar exposure during the six days of the week that I was at home. The new work arrangement continued until I decided to apply for a disability pension in early 2002.