Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS, microwave syndrome) – Review of mechanisms
Section snippets
Background and introduction
Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), known in the past as “Microwave syndrome”, is a clinical condition characterized by a broad spectrum of non-specific multiple organ systems that typically occur after a person's exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) from the environment. Numerous studies have shown biological effects at the cellular level of electromagnetic fields (EMF) at magnetic (ELF) and radio-frequency (RF) frequencies in extremely low intensities. Sensitivity to EMF, a systemic
Exposure
Exposure to EMF has been described in 2008–9 as between 10 and 15 times higher than the earth's natural magnetic field (Röösli, 2008; Nittby et al., 2009). Specifically around the 1 GHz frequency band, exposures have risen by approximally 1018 times natural levels (Bandara and Carpenter, 2018). In 2010, it was estimated that more than 2 billion people use cell phones worldwide (Soffritti, 2010). The electromagnetic fields that people are potentially exposed to are generated by a variety of
Physiologic evidence of health effects
Several studies cite abnormalities in neuropsychiatric testing in patients who report neuropsychiatric symptoms after exposure. Reeves (2000) reported on 34 US Air Force personnel who were exposed to RF at intensities greater than permissible exposure limits. The young men reported acute neurologic symptoms after exposure and standardized neuropsychiatric testing indicated that two thirds of the subjects exhibited findings consistent with antisocial personality, mild organic brain syndrome,
Mechanisms
Many of the mechanisms described for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) apply with modification to EHS. Repeated exposures result in sensitization and consequent enhancement of response (Overstreet, 2001; Latremoliere and Woolf, 2009; Molot, 2013; Sage, 2015). Many hypersensitive patients appear to have impaired detoxification systems that become overloaded by excessive oxidative stress (Korkina, 2009; De Luca et al., 2014). Patients can have neurologic, neuro-hormonal and neuro-psychiatric
Conclusion
In the modern world, exposure to electromagnetic radiation has become inescapable. There are many people who develop adverse health effects as a result of exposure to EMF. This review of the literature included numerous self-reported neurologic and neuropsychiatric symptoms which have a temporal relationship to EMF exposures. Further studies suggest that EMF exposure may be associated with changes in cerebral blood flow which correspond to abnormalities on PET scan of the brain. Some of the
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
The research on EHS was partly supported by the Environmental Health Trust, USA and by the Yael Pitun Fund for Environmental Research, Israel. The authors thank Dr. Devra Davis for her support and encouragement. We thank Prof. Charles Greenblatt for his persistent discussions on the effects of Magnetite. We thank Amir Bornstein, Dafna Tachover and other EHS sufferers for pushing us to learn more about electrohypersensitivity.
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2023, Science of the Total EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :In particular, IEI-EMF and EHS have been hypothesized to correspond to different levels of involvement in the EMF topic (Röösli et al., 2010). Nevertheless, diagnostic criteria for these conditions are not fully established and research has yet to produce clear evidence on the mechanisms causing people to attribute health complaints to EMF exposure or to define themselves as hypersensitive to EMFs (Baliatsas et al., 2009; Dieudonné, 2019, 2020; Stein and Udasin, 2020), although psychosocial factors are thought to play a role (Augner and Hacker, 2009; Baliatsas et al., 2015; Frick et al., 2002; Martens et al., 2018; Ramirez-Vazquez et al., 2019; Rubin et al., 2010; Watrin et al., 2022). As a consequence, the terms IEI-EMF and EHS are frequently used interchangeably in epidemiological studies, and this is likely to affect the range in estimated prevalence, which in industrialized countries varies between 1.5 % and 21 % (Eltiti et al., 2007; Hillert et al., 2002; Karvala et al., 2018; Levallois et al., 2002; Schreier et al., 2006).