EHS symptoms found to be genuine

New report on electromagnetic hypersensitivity finds real symptoms but no link to phone signals

The report on people’s susceptibility to mobile phone radiation by Professor Elizabeth Fox, of the University of Essex (UoE), has been released. So, will we now be able to sleep easier in our beds?

Well, the three-year study into “electromagnetic hypersensitivity” (EHS) found that when sensitive subjects were told a signal was being emitted, they suffered genuine symptoms, including higher blood pressure and sweatier skin. However, when the 44 sensitive and 114 control subjects were not told when the signal was being emitted, the symptoms reported were unrelated to whether the signal was on or off.

The equipment used in the study was installed by wireless vendor Red-M in a special Electromagnetics and Health Laboratory at UoE’s campus in Colchester. The whole set-up was validated as fit-for-purpose by the National Physical Laboratory. The lab was opened in 2004 by Sir William Stewart, then head of the National Radiological Protection Board, which was subsequently subsumed into the Health Protection Agency.

Dr Steve Leach, Red-M’s chief technology officer, said the frequencies used to irradiate the participants in the study were standard GSM and UMTS ones of around 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2000MHz, with a power distribution over the human body of around 10mW per metre squared.

The study concluded that the symptoms suffered were not related to the presence of either GSM or 3G signals. So if the people do not suffer from EHS, what are they suffering from?

“Paranoid delusion,” I hear the cynics cry, and there seems to be a lot of them out there, ready to accuse anybody who advises caution of holding back technological progress. Whether you consider mobile phone systems and their networks as progress is another matter entirely.

The study concluded that the symptoms suffered by the 44 sensitive people who took part in the trial had a psychological basis, but what about the participants who did not complete the study? Mast Sanity, the self-proclaimed “primary national organisation opposing the insensitive siting of mobile phone and Tetra masts in the UK”, said that 12 of the participants with EHS dropped out because they were too ill to continue. If these people weren’t suffering from exposure to low levels of microwave radiation, what were they suffering from and what does this study tell us about them? Twelve out of 56 works out to around 20 percent. Shouldn’t that set some alarm bells clanging somewhere?

I suspect the UoE laboratory will have a lot of work in the future, what with WiMax rollouts and the possibility of the mobile operators being given the green light to use GSM radio spectrum for their 3G and super-3G services. Stay tuned to this frequency!