There is not a single cell tower in Green Bank County. And the electromagnetic silence in this area is maintained by the federal government.
In a world where Wi-Fi and cell towers are everywhere, people have begun to emerge with increased sensitivity to electromagnetic waves. But there is a place where they can feel quite comfortable. The region in West Virginia, home to the world’s largest steerable telescope, is completely electromagnetically silent. The Washington Post writes about this special place.
In the 1950s, the federal government purchased farmland to build the Green Bank Observatory. It now houses the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Radio Telescope, the world’s largest steerable telescope, weighing 7,600 metric tons and standing 148 meters tall. Its dish can study quasars and pulsars, asteroids and planets, and also look for evidence of extraterrestrial life.
The observatory’s equipment is so sensitive that Earth’s radio waves will interfere with its astronomical surveys; just like a scream (a bunch of Wi-Fi signals) drowns out a whisper (signals from clouds of hydrogen suspended between galaxies). So, in 1958, the Federal Communications Commission created the National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000-square-mile area covering parts of Virginia and West Virginia where radio transmissions were limited to varying degrees.
At the center of the observatory is a 16-kilometer zone where Wi-Fi, cell phones, cordless phones and most other wave-emitting equipment are prohibited.
Wired internet and TVs are also good; but you must have a cable or satellite provider. This is not a place from 100 years ago. More like 30 years ago. If you want to schedule a meeting with someone, you do it in person.
Who Lives in Green Bank?
Some people move here to work at the observatory. Some people come because they think they should. These are “electrosensitive” as they often call them. The patients and Green Bank are their Lourdes (a city in France where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared to the girl Bernadette. A place of pilgrimage).
Experts estimate that at least 75 people in Pocahontas County, which has a population of approximately 7,500, have electromagnetic hypersensitivity.
One of them is Brandon Barrett, who arrived here two weeks ago. He was a racer and owned a motorcycle shop in Buffalo, but in 2019 he started getting sick. He realized that his situation was directly related to the cell tower near his home. When bloody fluid began leaking from his ears in the summer of 2023, Brandon noticed new rows of panels appearing on the base station. He moved to the countryside and felt better, but not by much. He then decided to move to Green Bank.
He read that other patients had been moved here and recovered, and that the electromagnetic silence of the area was maintained by the federal government.
The person helping the newcomers is 63-year-old Sue Howard, who has been living in Green Bank since 2016. He moved from New York when he started experiencing migraines, heart rhythm disturbances and temporary blindness.
They hear that there is no real scientific consensus about their disease, but they note that Sweden recognizes electrohypersensitivity (EHS) as a functional disorder—albeit a self-reported condition. They watched as journalists discredited doctors and scientists who supported the idea of EHS. And no, they don’t like the caricature of electrosensitivity depicted on the TV show Better Call Saul: a distraught, paranoid man who wraps himself in a foil blanket and avoids even sunlight.
How do people with electromagnetic hypersensitivity live?
For grocery shopping, they go to the town of Kass, about 11 km away, where there are shops, restaurants and a gas station with Wi-Fi. Or Elkins, 50 miles north of Green Bank.
“It’s like hitting a brick wall,” Sue says of her trips there. Symptoms begin to reoccur and it takes several days to heal. Without cell phone service, Green Bank residents will have to rely on landlines just like those of us 30 years ago.
“You’re so isolated from civilization. You don’t go to the movies anymore. You don’t go to restaurants as much. You don’t socialize with your friends back home. It’s very difficult,” says Audra Bogaczyk, a retired dentist in her 50s who moved here from Pittsburgh to relieve nosebleeds and other symptoms.
When Brandon arrived without a place to stay, Audra and her father settled him in a house at their camp without electricity, built from shipping containers, hidden high on a mountain deep in the woods. He is currently choosing where to live and wants to build a cabin in the woods.
Sue builds two houses on a large plot of land, away from other people: one equipped with electronics so that her husband can enjoy the advantages of modern life, the other isolated from them. “The goal is to create a quiet zone within the Quiet Zone,” he says.
But there is a danger that Green Bank will soon cease to be a haven for hypersensitive people. Eight Quiet Zone county commissions recently passed resolutions expressing concern that the area impedes public safety. They say limited cellular and Wi-Fi services slow communication between rescuers and could put lives at risk across the 13,000-square-mile region. And apathetic Green Bank residents continue to install Wi-Fi even when they shouldn’t.
“I don’t blame the locals for wanting this,” says Sue. He also adds: “This is a human rights issue. It is our right not to have our bodies interfered with in this way.”
In October, astronomers using the Green Bank Radio Telescope discovered pyrene, a type of large, carbon-containing molecule known as a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). They are some of the most abundant complex molecules in the known universe. The discovered pyrene molecule is the largest ever detected using radio telescopes.
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.