Electrical Hypersensitivity (ES)

Electrical Hypersensitivity (ES) is an illness that is little understood except by the people who suffer from it, who are only too well aware of its symptoms, though they may not be aware of the cause of them, or even have heard of the illness. The medical profession on the whole do not recognise ES (like ME (or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) was not recognised as a medical condition when it was first reported). GPs will often refer patients to the psychiatric profession saying that their symptoms are 'all in the mind' and that they are 'over anxious and with psychological problems'. Depression may well follow as a result of being disbelieved, not only by GPs, but family, friends, work colleagues and employers, but it is not depression. Medical personnel who specialise in ES or are even somewhat knowledgeable are very thin on the ground, and can be based in hospitals which are, for many ES people, an impossible environment even to visit, because of the electrical equipment and fluorescent lighting.

ES affects up to 35 % of the population. About 5 % of the population has become seriously affected to the extent that that their lifestyle has to be modified, sometimes quite dramatically. Unfortunately, the people who have minor effects may well go on to become more seriously affected by exposure to electrical or microwave sources, if they do nothing to improve their electromagnetic environment, or to boost their immune system.

ES can be triggered by exposure to a new electrical source  (typically VDUs, fluorescent lighting, mobile phones or mobile phone masts) or by chemical exposure (damp proof course, garden or farm sprays, cavity wall insulation, etc).

In ES sufferers, eyes and skin react in a multitude of ways, they get headaches of all degrees of severity, sleep disturbances (especially near mobile phone masts), heart problems, joint aches, tiredness, digestive and breathing difficulties, cognitive and behavioural disturbances, etc. According to a Swedish Trade Union, between 1993 and 1996 the number of people suffering serious side effects from exposure to sources of EMF in the workplace doubled, from 10 % to 20 %. There is reason to believe that this escalation in ill-health is contining as the environment is getting increasingly polluted with Radiofrequency radiation (known to trigger ES) from new developments in mobile telecommunications technology and a 'bluetooth' world where our electrical appliances talk to each other using microwaves.