News this month of the deployment of the so-called i-beacons in the British high street filled me with dread.  Pumping out Bluetooth signals to anyone going about the apparently harmless business of shopping, this just represents yet another increase to the already heavy toxic burden of electromagnetic radiation in public places.  Anyone who is electrosensitive will know that the high street is an already difficult place to be: this new technological facility is likely to make it an impossibly hostile place to go.

But it’s not just the electrosensitives amongst us that are going to be affected.  The continual bombardment of electromagnetic pulses will have an effect on everyone but it’s only electrosensitives who feel the effects.  And it emphasises the importance for everyone of having healthy home environments, particularly in the bedroom overnight, so that our bodies can properly and completely rest and repair.  Without this, sleep will be compromised, the immune system will suffer and ill health can find an easier door in.  Is it worth the risk?  If you do nothing else, switch off mobile and cordless phones at night, WiFi and laptops, don’t have things on charge near the bed and switch off and unplug anything electrical near the bed.  If you are concerned about neighbours or local masts or pylons, then have a survey.

So shopping is probably out as a form of entertainment for sufferers of electrosensitivity but what’s left that is electromagnetically benign.  You’d probably be surprised just how tricky it is finding options for entertainment that are .

The idea of a peaceful trip in a horse-drawn barge along my local canal seemed to offer a perfect opportunity for just such entertainment.  Surely I would not be in a sea of electromagnetic pollution floating along a canal in an historic barge.  I boarded the barge with my family and took my seat up front.  Ten minutes into the trip I feel the onset of my typical ES symptoms – nausea and the physical sensations of panic attack, a very odd feeling when mentally it is not possible to be more relaxed.  Surely not here.  Surely there is no WiFi or Bluetooth on the barge.  I know there are no masts around so it’s not that.  Meter in hand I detect the familiar pulses of mobile, Bluetooth and WiFi, made all the more strong because we are in an area with a poor signal and this makes devices turn up their power.

There is a chance for me to get off the barge at the half way point and I take it, to enjoy a peaceful and EMF free walk back along the tow path.  A far more pleasurable experience than being on a barge full of people moaning about their phones not having a signal and patently not appreciating the unique peace and beauty of a near-silent boat ride.

Yes I am middle-aged, electrosensitive and biased towards activities of a mindful nature.  But surely there is a time and place for everything, isn’t there?