There are many names for the same condition, most commonly referred to as Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS). If one is researching the topic, familiarizing oneself with the following alternative names is helpful:
All of the above terms describe the same real, physical condition, whereby a person develops an intolerance to electromagnetic radiation (EMR), and clearly observable health symptoms are suffered when they are exposed to EMR. Depending on the severity, some individuals may only suffer noticeable effects from RF (radiofrequency) EMR, particularly those in the microwave spectrum used in wireless communication, whereby they must limit their exposure to cell phones; wi-fi routers; bluetooth-enabled devices; smart meters; cell towers, masts and small cell transmitters; radio towers and transmitting antennas; microwave ovens, etc. However, some people are so severely impaired they cannot even tolerate the extremely low frequencies (ELFs) from electricity running through the power lines of a house, and must live their life without electricity, in addition to avoiding radiofrequency EMR.
It is unfortunate that many people's only knowledge about EHS is derived from the fictional TV series, "Better Call Saul," whereby one of the characters, Chuck McGill, believes he is sensitive to electricity and wireless devices like cell phones. In one of the final episodes, after someone planted a cell phone on his person from which he failed to notice any effects, Chuck concluded that he was suffering from mental illness. Some psychiatrists prefer to hold onto the claim that sufferers of EHS are mentally ill, or that EHS a psychosomatic illness---these diagnoses are best for business, since they would warrant the prescription of pharmaceutical drugs.
It is also unfortunate that people attempting to research EHS or the health effects of EMR, possibly in order to better understand a family member's or friend's affliction with EHS, are often misled due to internet censorship. Information can be blocked from even appearing in a search because those in control of the company's search engine have decided not to index certain articles, web pages, or even entire websites. Other seemingly valid sources of information can be biased or contain falsehoods. For example, Wikipedia is often thought to be a reputable source to begin one's search for information on a topic, but reading and believing the first paragraph presented on "Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity" would cause one to conclude that EHS is a condition with no scientific basis and that it is generally accepted to be of psychosomatic origin, which couldn't be further from the truth. Many of Wikipedia's listed reference articles to support these false claims are also 15-20 years old. One needs to understand that many informational sources on the internet are controlled by powerful organizations that often have ties to the communications industry, and therefore have a strong financial incentive to conceal the truth about electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) and the health effects of EMR. Although Wikipedia is a non-profit organization, it receives its largest donations from companies such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft. It would be detrimental to these technology companies (which depend on the ubiquitous usage of wireless communication) if public awareness were to be increased regarding the undisputable fact that EMR is known to cause health symptoms and disease. If you are seeking the truth about the health effects of EMR or the condition of EHS, please visit the page, A Few Notes about Conducting Internet Research and Reading Scientific Journal Articles, to help you understand how to find legitimate sources of information.
EHS is not a mental illness. EHS is a physical illness that can not be cured with pharmaceutical drugs. Currently, the primary treatment prescribed by medical doctors familiar with the condition, is for the sufferer to avoid electromagnetic radiation to the greatest extent possible. Some individuals have healed in this way, although others have not. Depending on the person, a full recovery could take anywhere from a few years to over a decade; or in the worst case scenario, may never happen. In the U.S., a country that does not acknowledge the health consequences of non-ionizing radiation, an individual with EHS is often condemned to a life of isolation from society since there are fewer and fewer places they can go without being exposed to levels of EMR that cause them to suffer health symptoms, some of which are life-threatening.
Humans are electrosensitive beings, as is all life. It has been discovered that even individual cells have specific responses to specific frequencies and waveforms of electromagnetic radiation. The tiniest bacteria undergoes measurable changes when exposed to varying types of EMR. Our heart is controlled by electrical impulses, which is why it is one of the organs most commonly affected by exposure to EMR. The brain also uses electrical signals to send its messages to the rest of the components of the body to maintain homeostasis, and is also one of the organs most affected by EMR. It is common sense that our bodily electrical processes can be disrupted by electrical and magnetic fields in our environment, causing bodily dysfunction, just as interference from other wireless signals in the environment can cause our wireless electronics to malfunction, or result in a reduction in the quality of a radio station or a digital TV station.
While every living being is subject to the effects caused by EMR in their environment, some show a more prominent or immediate adverse reaction. Such individuals are considered to be electrosensitive. Similarly to how some people see or hear better, or have a more acute sense of smell, some people can perceive when they are in the presence of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) or electromagnetic fields (EMFs). However, just because a person doesn't get obvious and immediate symptoms (i.e. red blotches on the skin, itching, hives, chest pain, heart palpitations and arrythmyias, hand/wrist/arm pain or sudden onset of an asthma attack) when they are exposed to EMR doesn't mean their body is unaffected or somehow immune to the biological effects of EMR. Sometimes the effects come hours or even days after the causative exposure in the form of headaches, nausea, dizziness, blurry vision, fatigue, brain fog and concentration issues, or difficulty sleeping. When the effects are not immediate, it is more difficult for the person to correlate these types of health effects with a specific EMR exposure. EMR is also known to cause digestive issues along the whole digestive system, from swallowing to excretion, high blood pressure and diabetes. Doctors generally treat the symptoms of these diseases with drugs, rather than helping the sufferer to determine the cause of the disease. Most general practitioners do not suggest trying to avoid EMR to see if their patients' conditions improve before prescribing medication(s). The best way to see if there is an association between one's health symptoms and the EMR in their environment is to purchase the proper RF meter to measure one's surroundings, and start keeping track of what symptoms one has, where they occurred, and what the EMR level was in that location. Visit the Remediation and How to Create a Healthier Home page for information on purchasing a RF meter and eliminating EMR from the home environment. Refer to the Notes About Correlating One's Health Symptoms with EMR Exposure and Health Symptoms and Diseases Correlated with EMR Exposure Pages if you are attempting to determine if you may be electrosensitive.
The abstract from Chapter 8 " Electrohypersensitivity as a worldwide man-made electromagnetic pathology: a review of the medical evidence" in the 2023 textbook titled Electromagnetic Fields of Wireless Communications: Biological and Health Effects, edited by well-respected researcher of biological and health effects of EMR, Dr. Dmitris J. Panagopoulos, provides a summary of what is currently known about EHS:
Much of the controversy over the causes of electro-hypersensitivity (EHS) and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) lies in the absence of both recognized clinical criteria and objective biomarkers for widely accepted diagnosis. However, there are, presently, sufficient clinical, biological, and radiological data for EHS to be acknowledged as a distinctly well-defined, objectively identified, and characterized neurologic pathological disorder. Therefore, patients who self-report suffering from EHS should be diagnosed and treated on the basis of currently available biological tests and the use of suitable cerebral imaging. Because we have shown that EHS is frequently associated with MCS in EHS patients and that both those individualized clinical entities share a common pathophysiological mechanism for symptom occurrence, it appears that EHS and MCS can be identified as a unique neurologic pathological syndrome, whatever their precise causal origin is. In this review, we distinguish the etiology of EHS itself from the environmental causes that trigger symptoms and subsequent pathophysiological changes after EHS occurrence. Contrary to present scientifically unfounded claims, we indubitably refute the hypothesis of a nocebo effect to account for the genesis of EHS and its presentation in EHS self-reported patients. We also refute the erroneous concept that EHS could be reduced to a vague “functional impairment”. The hypersensitivity that characterizes EHS appears to be a persistent and most often irreversible pathological state, as is also the case for sensitivity to chemicals in MCS-bearing patients. Taking into consideration the WHO-proposed causality criteria, we argue that EHS may, in fact, be causally related to increased exposure to man-made electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and, in a limited number of cases, to marketed environmental chemicals. We, therefore, appeal to all governments and international health institutions and, more particularly, the WHO to urgently consider this growing EHS-associated pandemic plague and to acknowledge EHS as a new real disorder.
It has been known for decades that human exposure to radio waves and microwaves
can cause serious health symptoms. EHS was first called Microwave Syndrome, Microwave Sickness or
Microwave Illness. The Soviet Union documented the adverse health symptoms
experienced by WWII soldiers working with RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) in
which pulses of radio waves are used to detect an object's range, angle, and
velocity. The term, "microwave syndrome", was used in the articles published in
the 1970s.
This article below from November 2015, published in Reviews on Environmental Health, contains some of the earlier research article titles from the 1970's in the list of references at the end. It includes several case studies and discussion on the difference between pulses emitted by smart meters and normal sine wave emissions, which may be the reason smart meters appear to contribute to or cause symptoms of EHS in individuals not suffering from noticeable health symptoms from the other wireless signals in their environment.
"The microwave syndrome or electro-hypersensitivity: historical background"
This
article from the International Journal of Molecular Sciences published in
March 2020, refers to EHS as being "newly identified" in the sense that there is
now enough scientific research into the mechanisms that cause it, and specific
molecular biomarkers have now been isolated that appear to indicate that a
person has it, making EHS now clearly identified and characterized as a unique
neurologic pathological disorder. The authors argue that EHS should have its
own World Health Organization International Classification of Disease Code, as
should Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). MCS shows similarities to EHS in
its symptoms and inflammatory and autoimmune response. MCS is commonly suffered
concurrently by individuals with EHS.
This
international consensus report published July 7, 2021, in the International
Journal of Molecular Sciences pleads for the acknowledgement of EHS as a
distinct neuropathological disorder and for its inclusion in the WHO
International Classification of Diseases, and responds to criticism of the
article above.
The article linked below, published July 5, 2017 in Reviews on
Environmental Health, discusses in detail one of the biomarkers mentioned in
the two articles above that is found in many sufferers of EHS, a brain
abnormality that can be observed with a functional MRI. Interestingly, it
appears the abnormality appears to have resulted from a prior traumatic brain
injury. Unfortunately, the complete text of this article, which contains photos
of the MRIs and much more detail regarding the study, is no longer available to
the general public. The link below only leads to a shortened summary of the
article.
Although
the title of the following article published in the Journal of Chemical
Neuroanatomy, Vol 75, Part B, September 2016, pgs. 43-51, seems limiting, it
is actually very informative relative to the causative mechanisms behind
microwave sickness, a.k.a. EHS. Because it is related to the brain, this
article has also been included on the Effects of
Non-ionizing Electromagnetic Radiation on the Brains of Humans and Other Mammals
Page.
For those suffering from the disabling physical condition of EHS in the U.S.,
the future seems bleak in regard to EHS being recognized as a real physical
disability. Here is one glimmer of hope: A case won by a teacher
suffering from EHS caused after an upgraded wi-fi system was installed at her
school. The Court ruled that EHS did qualify as a disability
covered under California's Federal Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).
"What’s That Ringing Sound? Court of Appeal Holds Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Can Constitute a “Physical Disability” Under FEHA"
Keep
in mind this next linked article was published in 2010. It incorrectly states
that most scientists agree that the "sea" of electromagnetic radiation we
currently live in is not harmful. The article also refers to outdated claims of EHS
possibly being a psychological illness, rather than physical, which has no merit
in light of recent studies. Since 2010, so much more has been discovered about
the possible mechanisms behind the development of EHS. The article also
incorrectly states that cell phones are not a cancer risk. It should be
noted that a year later, in May 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) evaluated cancer risks from radiofrequency (RF) radiation. Human epidemiological studies gave evidence of increased risk for glioma and acoustic neuroma. RF radiation such as that emitted by cell phones, was classified as Group 2B, a possible human carcinogen.
Following the 2011 classification, there is now an abundance of research concluding that RF radiation is
definitely a carcinogen, indicating that the classification should be
updated to Group 1. Refer to the Sufficient Evidence
Exists to Conclude that Non-ionizing EMR Causes Cancer Page for information.
This article is included on this page because it does provide insight into what it is like to live with EHS, from a person most readers would find to be a credible source. The man who is the subject of the story, Per Segerbäck, was once an elite telecommunications engineer. For more than 20 years, he worked for Ellemtel, a division of the Swedish telecom giant Ericsson. He led an engineering group that designed advanced integrated circuits for prototype telecommunication systems. He used the newest and most advanced computer and telecom equipment available to which only Ericsson and the Swedish military had access. He noticed his first symptoms (dizziness, nausea, headaches, burning sensations and red blotches on his skin) in the late 1980s, a decade into his telecommunications research work. Notably, all but two of his 20-some colleagues reported similar symptoms, although his were by far the most severe.
"The Man Who Was Allergic to Radio Waves"
Mr.
Segerbäck, "The Man Who Was Allergic to Radio Waves," was instrumental in
causing policy changes in Sweden regarding EHS. According to the article above,
Swedish EHS sufferers, estimated to be about 3 percent of the population, or
some 250,000 people, according to government statistics, are entitled to similar
rights and social services as those given to people who are blind or deaf.
Today in Sweden, local governments will pay to have the home of someone
diagnosed with EHS electronically “sanitized,” if necessary, through the
installation of metal shielding.
It is unfortunate that people living in other countries do not have access to this kind of governmental support, or any policies at all to protect them, as this article published October 26, 2022 in Reviews on Environmental Health explains.
The
first ever study on 5G; published in Swedish February 22, 2022, in the journal,
Medicinsk Access, and later in English, in the journal, Annals of Case
Reports; indicates that 5G technology causes Microwave Syndrome in persons who
could otherwise tolerate previous generations of wireless technology (i.e. 3G
and 4G). Below is the summary of
the article, and the actual case report. Click the "English" button at the top
of the page to read the summary in English.
First study to date: 5G causes microwave syndrome
This article published June 19, 2024 in the journal, Reviews on Environmental
Health, presents seven case studies, comprising 16 persons, on health
effects from real 5G RF radiation exposure, showing that the study persons
developed microwave syndrome (a.k.a. EHS) after installation of 5G base stations in
the neighborhood of their dwellings.
Continue to Remediation of RF Radiation and How to Create a Healthier Home -->
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