Electromagnetic hypersensitivity: Fatigue, dizziness, tinnitus, headaches, concentration and memory problems, and sleep disturbances

  • Mediators of Inflammation: Electromagnetic hypersensitivity consists of nonspecific multiple-organ symptoms implying both acute and chronic inflammatory processes. Diagnosis is feasible by analyzing blood for inflammation caused by “multiple chemical sensitivity” or other environmental “sensitivity-related illnesses”.
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: Cleaning “dirty electricity” electromagnetic fields reduces asthma, ADD/ADHD, MS, chronic fatigue syndrome, and electromagnetic hypersensitivity symptoms.
  • Reviews on Environmental Health: “Chronic multi-system illness” correlates electromagnetic hypersensitivity to 3 MHz-300 GHz, with headaches, concentration difficulties, sleep problems, depression, lack of energy, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms.
  • International Journal of Neuroscience: EMF hypersensitivity can occur as a bona fide environmentally inducible neurological syndrome (60-Hz, 300 V/m), causing temporal pain, headache, muscle twitching, and skipped heartbeats within 100 seconds after EMF exposure.
  • Occupational and Environmental Medicine: Significant correlation between cell phone signal strength and decreased perceptual accuracy/headaches, between 20 and 600 meters from cell phone towers in Vienna and Carinthia, Austria (900 MHz, average 20 to 50 μW/m2, maximum 4.1 mW/m2). Cell phone towers should be located to minimize neighbors’ exposure.
  • PLOS One: Tinnitus is significantly more common among people with in the electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Tinnitus and electromagnetic hypersensitivity are independent risk factors for sleep disturbances. Distress in the outer layer of the brain appears to be responsible for both electromagnetic hypersensitivity and tinnitus.
  • Pathology Biology (France): Distance from cell phone base station correlates with: a) Fatigue to a distance of 200 to 300 meters; b) Headaches, sleep disturbances, and feelings of discomfort at distances up to 200 meters; c) Irritability, depressive tendencies, and lowering of libido up to 100 meters; and d) Nausea, loss of appetite, visual disturbances at distances to 10 meters. Symptoms significantly more common for women, and older subjects. Human occupancy should exceed 300 meters from cell phone base stations. (Full text link: Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine)
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: Residents of Isfahan, Iran had significantly elevated nausea, headache, dizziness, irritability, discomfort, nervousness, depression, sleep disturbance, memory loss and lowered libido if they live closer than 300 meters from mobile phone base station antennas. Suggest locating base station antennas at least 300 meters from populations. (Publication “retracted” due to overlap with the following “Diyala Journal of Medicine” study)
  • Occupational and Environmental Medicine (Diyala Journal of Medicine): Residents of Baquba, Iraq had significantly elevated headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbances, irritability, feeling of discomfort, dizziness, and cardiovascular problems if they lived closer than 100 meters to mobile phone base stations. Advisable to locate cellular phone base stations further than 300 meters from population centers as a precautionary measure, to minimize neighbors’ exposure.
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: La Ñora, Murcia, Spain residents had statistically significant exposure-response associations between RFR intensity and fatigue, irritability, headaches, nausea, loss of appetite, sleeping disorder, depressive tendency, feeling of discomfort, difficulty in concentration, loss of memory, visual disorder, dizziness and cardiovascular problems. Severity of the symptoms lessen at distances exceeding 250 meters from the antenna, once exposures drop below 0.1 µW/cm2, i.e., far below the Spanish and European “safety standard” of 450 µW/cm2 at frequencies of 900 MHz.
  • Neurotoxicology: The prevalence of neuropsychiatric effects such as headache, memory changes, dizziness, tremors, depressive symptoms, and sleep disturbance were significantly higher among Menoufiya, Egypt residents in buildings adjacent to roof-mounted cell phone antennas (Exposure during study 0.002 to 0.0067 mW/cm2; Egyptian maximum permissible exposure limits = 0.008 mW/cm2 for continuous exposure; 0.4 mW/cm2 for intermittent exposure).
  • Occupational Medicine (Polish): Survey revealed that people living in the vicinity of base stations report circulatory system problems, sleep disturbances, irritability, depression, blurred vision, concentration difficulties, nausea, lack of appetite, headache and vertigo.
  • Environmental Medicine Society (German): Elevated levels of stress hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline), and lowered dopamine and PEA levels found in the urine of residents during the first 6 months of activating the first cell tower in Rimbach, Germany. The cell tower’s activation also correlated with increases in sleep problems, headache, vertigo, concentration problems, and allergies. Elevated stress hormone levels persisted throughout the first 1.5 years of this experiment.
  • Journal of the International Society of Preventative and Community Dentistry: Closer proximity to mobile phone base stations in India was found to correlate with hypertension, sleep disturbances, headache, dizziness, irritability, concentration difficulties, and reduced salivary secretion.
  • Bioelectromagnetics: Electromagnetic hypersensitivity symptoms appear before subjects start questioning effects of EMF on their health. This is inconsistent with EMF hypersensitivity originating as a psychosomatic response to perceived EMF exposure. (Full Text)
  • Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health: RF-EMF exposure associated with: a) Significant morphological lesions in the myelin sheath of rats; b) A greater risk of multiple sclerosis in a study subgroup; c) Effects in proteins related to myelin production; and d) Physical symptoms in individuals with functional impairment electro-hypersensitivity, similar to demyelination symptoms.
  • Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health: RF-EMF exposure associated with: a) Significant morphological lesions in the myelin sheath of rats; b) A greater risk of multiple sclerosis in a study subgroup; c) Effects in proteins related to myelin production; and d) Physical symptoms in individuals with functional impairment electro-hypersensitivity, similar to demyelination symptoms.
  • Bioelectromagnetics: Electromagnetic hypersensitivity symptoms appear before subjects start questioning effects of EMF on their health. This is inconsistent with EMF hypersensitivity originating as a psychosomatic response to perceived EMF exposure. (Full Text)
  • Medical Review (In Polish – “Przegla̧d Lekarski”): The worldwide number of people suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity is growing. They describe themselves as severely dysfunctional, and show multi-organ non-specific symptoms after exposure to low doses of electromagnetic radiation, often associated with hypersensitivity to chemical and other allergens.
  • Environmental Health Perspectives: Singapore residents had significantly more headaches as their hand held cell phone usage increased. Prevalence of headache reduced more than 20% among those who used hands-free cellular devices.
  • Journal of Psychosomatic Research: Patient management strategy should distinguish between patients with electromagnetic hypersensitivity symptoms (i.e., anxiety, depression, somatization, exhaustion, and stress) and patients with symptoms related to specific EMF sources.
  • Reviews on Environmental Health: Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is an EMF-related health problem that warrants a new designation under the “International Classification of Diseases”.
  • Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine: Smart meters may have unique characteristics that lower people’s threshold for development of electromagnetic hypersensitivity.