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- How many people suffer from ElectroSensitivity?
- Is ElectroSensitivity recognized by the medical profession and/or the authorities?
- What other names are is it known by?
- What can I do to help someone who is affected?
- Have there been any high profile cases?
- Who was the first person to suffer from ElectroSensitivity?
- Does 'sensitivity' mean 'allergy'?
- Why is it sometimes difficult for ElectroSensitive's to work out what they are reacting to?
 How many people suffer from ElectroSensitivity? |
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In Sweden, where ElectroSensitivity is officially regarded as a physical impairment, there are over 230,000 people (2.5% of the population) registered as having ElectroSensitivity in some form.
No official data exists for other countries, although there may be up to 1.5 million people in England who suffer from ElectroSensitivity in some form, and as many as 6.5 million in USA if you apply the figure of 2.5% to these countries populations.
There were 2 studies done in 2002 which surveyed the general population and asked whether they thought they suffered from some kind of electrical sensitivities. The first (Hillert et al) asked 10,600 randomly selected people by post. 1.5% of those who responded said they suffer from it. The second (Levallois et al) was a telephone survey to 2000 people. 3.2% said they suffered from ElectroSensitivity and 0.5% said they were hyper sensitive.
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| Is ElectroSensitivity recognized by the medical profession and/or the authorities? |
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The World Health Organization admit that ElectroSensitivity is a "real and sometimes disabling condition". However, most governments do not yet recognize it as a physical disablement. Sadly, this is just as much to do with the political implications of acknowledging that electricity can have adverse health effects as it is to do with the fact that it is a new condition and not very well understood.
Sweden is the only country so far which officially recognizes it as a 'Physical Impairment'.
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| What other names is it known by? |
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Electrical HyperSensitivity (EHS) - Commonly used. Interchangeable with ElectroSensitivity.
VDT Sickness - Describes a particular group of ElectroSensitive's who suffer similar symptoms such as burning, itching, and pain whilst in front of a computer monitor.
Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance (IEI) - Proposed by the World Health Organization in 2004, although it hasn't taken up common usage.
Other names
Electromagnetic Sensitivity
Electromagnetic Oversensitivity
Electromagnetic HyperSensitivity
Electrical Sensitivity
Electrical SuperSensitivity
Electrical Oversensitivity
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| What can I do to help someone who is affected? |
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Generally, there is no official help or treatment. The majority of doctors will laugh it off, specialists will look down upon it and sometimes even friends or family will mock it. It can be a very lonely time. The most important thing you can do, is simply believe the person when they say they are sensitive to electricity, and support them when they try to take steps to shield themselves, avoid the things they are sensitive to .
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| Have there been any high-profile cases? |
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Former Norway Prime Minister and Director-general of the World Health Organization Gro Harlem Brundtland suffers from electrosensitivity. Voted in 2004 as the 4th most influential European in the last 25 years behind Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher, she suffers from a sensitivity to both mobile phones and computers. She is herself a qualified Physician.
Gro:" In the beginning I felt a local warmth around my ear. But the agony got worse, and turned into a strong discomfort and headaches every time I used a mobile phone...It's not the sound, but the waves I react on. My hypersensitivity has gone so far that I even react on mobiles closer to me than about four meters".
She goes on to talk about the seriousness of the condition: "I am convinced this has to be taken seriously. Some people develop sensitivity to electricity and radiation from equipment such as mobile phones or PCs. If this sensitivity can lead to adverse health-effects as cancer or other diseases, we do not know yet. But I think we should follow the precautionary principle, especially with regard to our children."
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In 1988, an Ericsson subsidiary company had 60 employees develop hyper-sensitivity to electricity after the installation of a mobile phone base station on the company roof. The company subsequently tried to hush the whole thing down, but received a $1,000,000 grant from a Swedish Working Life Fund to change the working environment. Many of those affected are still hypersensitive.
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| Who was the first person to suffer from ElectroSensitivity? |
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It's believed that the first case was reported by the inventor, physicist & mechanical engineer Nikola Tesla. Described by many as a 'genius', and recognized as one of the greatest technological scientists of all time, Tesla suffered late on in his life from a very severe illness believed to be due to exposure to high levels of electromagnetic fields throughout his life
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography of Tesla, written by his close friend John O'neill described his extreme sensitivities:
"To doctor's he appeared at death's door. The strange manifestations he exhibited attracted the attention of a renowned physician, who declared that medical science could do nothing to aid him. One of the symptoms of the illness was an acute sensitivity of all the sense-organs. His senses had always been extremely keen, but this sensitivity was now so tremendously exaggerated that the effects were a form of torture. The ticking of a watch three rooms away sounded like the beat of hammers on an anvil. The vibration of ordinary city traffic, when transmitted through a chair or bench, pounded through his body. It was necessary to place the legs of his bed on rubber pads to eliminate the vibrations. Ordinary speech sounded like thunderous pandemonium. The slightest touch had the mental effect of a tremendous blow. A beam of sunlight shining on him produced the effect of an internal explosion. In the dark he could sense an object at a distance of a dozen feet by a peculiar creepy sensation in his forehead. His whole body was constantly wracked by twitches and tremors. His pulse, he said, would vary from a few feeble throbs per minute to more than a hundred and fifty. Throughout this mysterious illness he was fighting with a powerful desire to recover his normal condition. ".
The book Electromagnetic Man adds to this:
"It is fascinating to realize that the person who can justly be called the 'Father of Electrical Engineering' must have received enough long-term exposure to electromagnetic fields and frequencies through his pattern of obsessional working that he himself became what is probably the first well-documented case of allergic responses leading to hypersensitivity triggered by electromagnetic fields. "
Tesla died in 1946 at the age of 87.
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| Does sensitivity mean allergy? |
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In most cases, NO. An allergy is when there is a specific immune system response to an outside invader, involving antibodies. The specific mechanism behind electrical sensitivities is not known but it generally does not involve antibodies.
However, it is often helpful to use the word allergy when describing electrical sensitivities, as most people can relate to and understand it..
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| Why is it sometimes difficult for ElectroSensitive's to work out what they are reacting to? |
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In many cases, when someone finds out they have a sensitivity or an allergy to a certain substance (such as a chemical or a metal), that person often goes through a long and drawn-out process of trial and error to find out what's causing it.
For example, let's say someone has just developed urticaria (hives, itching and a rash). How would they know what's causing it? Perhaps they've started reacting to a piece of metal jewelry or a new spray they are using. It's possible that their workplace has started using new cleaning chemicals which they are reacting badly to. Maybe it's a food intolerance, a new shampoo they are using or chemicals outgassing from paint or a carpet - the possibilities are endless. It can take someone up to a few months or more to work out what the offending substance is.
Usually with electrical sensitivities, the main offending source is obvious. However, the hypersensitive can sometimes react to a lot of other things which are less obvious, and can take a long time to work out. In addition to the above example:
- Sometimes ElectroSensitive's are sensitive to an array of chemicals too, and the chemical and electrical sensitivities can produce the same sensitivity reaction as the electricity!
- When reacting to multiple things, be it electricity or chemicals, each reaction can be more intense than if it was happening by itself. That is, the sensitivities can work synergistically with each other.
- The reactions can be delayed by up to a day or two.
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