A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

EHS: Microwave News Article Archive (2004 - )

November 16, 2022

ANSES, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety, has issued a request for proposals for studies on RF radiation.

March 6, 2022

“Associations Between a Polymorphism in the Rat 5-HT1A Receptor Gene Promoter Region (rs198585630) and Cognitive Alterations Induced by Microwave Exposure,” Frontiers in Public Health, February 2022. “Rats carrying rs198585630 C allele…were more susceptible to 30 mW/cm2 MW exposure, showing cognitive deficits and inhibition of brain electrical activity. These findings suggest SNP rs198585630…is an important target for further research exploring the mechanisms of hypersensitivity to MW exposure.”

July 9, 2021

“Review of the Scientific Evidence on the Individual Sensitivity to EM fields (EHS),” Reviews of Environmental Health, posted July 6, 2021. By Dariusz Leszczynski. Includes 263 references. Open access. Five additional tables in the supplementary materials.

July 14, 2017

“Functional Brain MRI in Patients Complaining of Electrohypersensitivity After Long Term Exposure to EMFs,” Reviews on Environmental Health, posted July 5, 2017.

“We believe that mold and mold toxin (mycotoxin) exposure can trigger EHS.” … “Many of our patients complaining of EHS have a history of head injury.”

February 3, 2016

“Anthropogenic RF EMFs Elicit Neuropathic Pain in an Amputation Model,” PLoS1, January 13, 2016.

“Our animal study supports anecdotal reports indicating that RF EMFs serve as a trigger for post-neurotomy pain. Further, it suggests that those who have suffered a nerve injury or other types of peripheral nerve pathology may be prone to RF EMF-induced pain. The fact that uninjured animals showed no response…is also in agreement with most scientific reports and the overwhelming view that, under normal circumstances, anthropogenic EMFs in the reported range causes no pain. Thus, this study offers a possible explanation for contradicting accounts…” SAR was 0.36 W/Kg at the skin surface. See also press release from the University of Texas, Dallas.

November 16, 2015

”“The Microwave Syndrome or Electro-Hypersensitivity: Historical Background,” Reviews on Environmental Health, posted online November 10, 2015.

“The weight of evidence indicates that EHS is a real syndrome induced by exposure to either ELF or RF EMF. In some cases it results from a brief, high intensity exposure, whereas in others it appears to reflect ambient exposures, especially those of increasing intensity and perhaps of certain waveforms.” By David Carpenter. The paper is part of a special issue of the journal on “idiopathic environmental intolerance.”

October 11, 2014

“Electric Blues: Rare Allergy Drives Tech Guru into Seclusion,” The Gleaner (Jamaica), October 11, 2014.

A story about a Jamaican software engineer who developed EM sensitvity, which he believes was brought on by a 4G WiFi modem. He is raising money to buy a low-EMF computer so that he can continue to work. Watch Joel Dean tell his story. … And in a very different climate, the Finnish press is reporting the case of a former Nokia tech who now has EHS. (Here’s a translation of the complete article.)

July 1, 2013

Gro Harlem Brundtland very rarely uses a cell phone, contrary to the impression promoted by the Norwegian Minister of Health that she is no longer electrosensitive, according to a message from Brundtland herself. Brundtland, a medical doctor, is a former prime minister of Norway and was the director of the WHO from 1998 to 2003.

“In her daily work, Gro Harlem Brundtland uses a PC with a cabled, not wireless, Internet connection. Second, she uses a mobile device —a...

June 28, 2013

The world's best-known electrosensitive, Gro Harlem Brundtland, is now using a mobile phone, according to a former top aide. The news, which will likely undermine the credibility of this controversial condition, was reported today by Thomas Ergo in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenbladet. Ergo...

February 19, 2013

“Taking Refuge from Modernity: 21st Century Hermits,” by I. Boyd, James Rubin and Simon Wessely of King's College, London, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, December 1, 2012.

“It appears there are similarities between those who live in isolation due to MCS or EHS and hermits that lived previously. The similarities focus on problems living in society, compulsion to flee, a sense of persecution, and ideas of fighting for an under-recognized cause.”

April 12, 2012

Mike Repacholi, the former head of the World Health Organization’s EMF project, is blaming his former boss, Gro Harlem Brundtland, for contributing “massively” to people’s fears of RF radiation from mobile phones.

While Brundtland was director-general of the WHO (1998 – 2003), she revealed that she was EHS or electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) (see...

November 30, 2011

Christopher Ketcham, who made a splash early last year with his GQ piece, "Warning: Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous to Your Health," is back on the EMF beat with a cover story in the latest issue of Earth Island Journal: "Warning: High Frequency." The first warning centered on brain tumor...

October 19, 2011

Cornell biologists may have made a breakthrough in understanding why some people are electrosensitive. They report in Nature Communications that humans as well as many other species descended from a type of fish that lived some 500 million years ago which had a "well developed electroreceptive system." A possible implication is that some of us, like sharks and rays, may be able to detect very weak electric fields and perhaps a subset has an electroreceptive system that has gone awry....

April 25, 2009

Is it possible that the precautionary principle could do more harm than good? Could the mere suggestion of a health risk bring on effects that it was intended to avoid? Such a phenomenon is known as the nocebo effect and has been much discussed in relation to EMFs in general and electrohypersensitivity in particular. For a cogent analysis of all this, check out Stuart Blackman's "Why Health Warnings Can Be Bad," in today's Financial Times Weekend magazine.

December 11, 2006

Electrical sensitivity continues to be a controversial subject. But as the number of WiFi hot spots multiplies, the press is paying more attention to the possibility that it may be a real condition. A good example is Nicki Daniels’s piece, “WiFi Should We Be Worried?”, in today's London Times. Be sure to read it to the end so you don’t miss Poppy Rhodes’s case history, “I Felt Dizzy and Nauseous.”

July 7, 2006

Being a member of ICNIRP or the WHO EMF project means having a ticket to ride. A couple of days ago, the traveling road show was in Malta. Mike Repacholi, Bernard Veyret and Paolo Vecchia showed up at a forum organized by the local communications authority, titled "The Reality Behind EMFs."

July 23, 2004

The Invisible Disease: The Dangers of Environmental Illnesses Caused by Electromagnetics Fields and Chemical Emissions, by veteran Swedish journalist Gunni Nordström has been published by O Books in the U.K. and will soon be available in the U.S.

"The Laughing Stock — And the Pursuit of Gro," 

Plot (Norway), April/May 2012 (English translation). See also our April 12 Short Take: "Repacholi Challenges Gro Brundtland, EHS."

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