{"id":5802,"date":"2013-09-29T22:49:52","date_gmt":"2013-09-30T05:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=5802"},"modified":"2015-03-09T22:51:22","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T05:51:22","slug":"csiro-scientist-dr-david-mcdonald-wins-compensation-for-wi-fi-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=5802","title":{"rendered":"CSIRO scientist Dr David McDonald wins compensation for Wi-Fi pain"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>SEPTEMBER 29, 2013\u00a012:01AM<\/p>\n<p>A CSIRO scientist has won compensation for crippling headaches, nausea and dizziness caused by using Wi-Fi and computers at work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Dr David McDonald, a mathematician who worked as a principal research scientist at the CSIRO for 15 years, has moved to the Victorian countryside to avoid electromagnetic radiation.<\/p>\n<p>He wears custom-made clothing fashioned from metallic cloth, has screened his house with metal shields and even sleeps in a special tent to screen out Wi-Fi transmissions in hotels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I go into a building with Wi-Fi I feel extremely ill,\u2019\u2019 he said yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI get a very strong headache and the left hand side of my head feels numb.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter ceasing that exposure, the symptoms disappear.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In a case that could set a precedent for workers\u2019 compensation cases, the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.austlii.edu.au\/au\/cases\/cth\/AATA\/2013\/105.html\" target=\"_blank\">Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT)<\/a>\u00a0has ruled that the federal government\u2019s insurer, Comcare, should compensate Dr McDonald for \u201caggravation of a condition of nausea, disorientation and headaches\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The judgement states that Dr McDonald told the CSIRO selection panel during his job interview that he suffered from sensitivity to electromagnetic frequencies \u2014 or EMF \u2014 emitted by computers, TVs, mobile phones, microwave ovens, power lines and transformers.<\/p>\n<p>The CSIRO agreed to give him an assistant, so he could write programs on paper and have someone else punch the code into a computer.<\/p>\n<p>But in 2005 it withdrew the administrative support and ordered Dr McDonald to trial working with a BlackBerry phone, an electronic projector and a desktop computer enclosed in a \u201cFaraday cage\u2019\u2019 to block electrical fields.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDr McDonald became ill within minutes each time his computer was switched on,\u2019\u2019 the judgement states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe experienced nausea and headaches and suffered severe migraine 2-12 hours later.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe felt unwell for several days after each attack.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Dr McDonald was allowed to work from home for six months \u2014 but when he tried returning to his Melbourne office in 2009 he \u201cbecame too ill to continue\u2019\u2019 and took sick leave.<\/p>\n<p>In May 2011 the CSIRO told Dr McDonald that it was \u201cnot medically possible for him to perform the requirements of his position\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>AAT deputy president James Constance ruled that on the basis of the evidence of Dr McDonald, doctors and medical specialists, \u201cI am satisfied that the migraines which immediately followed exposure to EMF were contributed to, to a significant degree, by Dr McDonald\u2019s employment by the CSIRO\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The AAT ruling means he will continue to be paid 75 per cent of his salary, as compensation for his illness.<\/p>\n<p>Dr McDonald said he felt schools should hardwire computers instead of using Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI fear for children who don\u2019t know why they can\u2019t concentrate, or why they feel nauseous,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd cabling in the internet is much faster and more efficient than using Wi-Fi.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>A Melbourne teacher with 30 years\u2019 experience, Maureen Kirsch, quit supply teaching in 2011 because she felt Wi-Fi was giving her blinding headaches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were schools I\u2019d been going to for 10 or 15 years and never had a problem, then I started having problems with their Wi-Fi,\u2019\u2019 she said yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d noticed that 17 laptops would go on and I couldn\u2019t stand in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt like my head was going to explode, I came home with blurred vision and I couldn\u2019t think straight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt happened continually and repeatedly until I was so ill I gave up.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Ms Kirsch said she first suffered symptoms when an electricity smart meter was installed in her home, and has since moved house.<\/p>\n<p>Australian Medical Association president Steve Hambleton yesterday said electromagnetic sensitivity was not recognised as an illness.<\/p>\n<p>He said there was \u201cno known mechanism\u2019\u2019 for Wi-Fi to damage DNA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SEPTEMBER 29, 2013\u00a012:01AM A CSIRO scientist has won compensation for crippling headaches, nausea and dizziness caused by using Wi-Fi and computers at work. Dr David McDonald, a mathematician who worked as a principal research scientist at the CSIRO for 15 years, has moved to the Victorian countryside to avoid electromagnetic radiation. He wears custom-made clothing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,7,12,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health_and_safety","category-law","category-wifi","category-wimax","category-wireless_devices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5803,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5802\/revisions\/5803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}