[Daily Mail] Allergic to Electricity

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Allergic to electricity

Last updated at 11:44am on 20th February 2007

 

Brian Stein has had to change his life. As the chief executive of a

high-tech food company with a turnover of £500m and 5,000 staff, you

would expect Brian Stein to have all the latest electronic gizmos.

 

But he doesn't even watch television or listen to a stereo system,

much less use a mobile phone or computer.

 

He cannot travel by electric train, take a long-haul flight or drive

a modern car, and long ago traded in his £50,000 BMW7 series for a

Nissan that is now 12 years old and has 235,000 miles on the clock.

 

For the past seven years, says Brian, he has been electrosensitive,

which means he reacts to the electromagnetic radiation - sometimes

known as electrosmog - given off by electricity systems and

appliances.

 

Five minutes near a mobile phone mast is enough to cause sharp pains

in his head. Longer exposure produces aching muscles, heart

palpitations and stomach cramps. On occasion, he says, it has caused

him to bleed internally.

 

But every doctor he has seen has told him categorically there is

nothing wrong and that his symptoms are all in his mind.

 

Officially in the UK, electrosensitivity does not exist. Sufferers

of the condition, meanwhile, claim that as many as five per cent of

the UK population could be affected.

 

Electrosensitivity is becoming an issue in schools, with many

parents concerned that their children are exposed to more electronic

gadgets than previous generations - and that we don't know enough

about the effects of the radiation emanating from them.

 

While there is no scientific evidence to suggest radiation from

wireless technology poses any immediate health risks, there has been

little research into its long-term effects, something sufferers are

clamouring for.

 

People who claim to be electrosensitive say they suffer disturbing

symptoms such as stomach pains and palpitations whenever they are in

close proximity to a mobile phone mast or a wi-finetwork 'hotspot'.

Yet most doctors say their symptoms are psychosomatic. So is this

very modern-sounding malaise the ME of the Noughties?

 

Brian, 57, believes his symptoms began as a result of using mobile

phones. " I had used one since they came on the market about 20 years

ago, " recalls Brian, who runs Samworth Brothers, a Leicestershire

company that supplies chilled foods to supermarket chains.

 

" Then seven years ago I started to experience a tingling sensation

in my face and right ear, a bit like earache. It happened only while

I was using the mobile phone. At first, I could use it for 20

minutes without a problem, then only for 15 minutes.

 

" Then one day, about a year later, as I put the phone to my head, it

felt as if my eardrum had burst - there was a sharp, stabbing pain.

I swore I would never use a mobile again and never have.'

 

Unfortunately for Brian, that was not the end of his problems. Soon

after, he began to experience head pains when he sat in front of his

computer or drove his car. Convinced he had a brain tumour, he

visited his GP, who told him that his symptoms were not consistent

with a tumour.

 

But his fears were not allayed and he asked to be referred to a

neurologist who - at Brian's insistence - arranged an MRI scan,

which was clear.

 

Over the next few weeks the symptoms spread to include a sore

throat, frequent chest pains and palpitations. " I wondered what the

hell was happening to me, " he says.

 

" It was my wife who went on the internet, just over a year after I

first started having problems, and found out about

electrosensitivity. As I read through the list of symptoms, I ticked

all the boxes. It was like a jigsaw fitting together. "

 

Brian began conducting a series of 'experiments'. Driving the car

made him feel unwell, but getting out of it made the symptoms

subside.

 

From the internet he learned that old vehicles with fewer electrics

are less likely to cause problems for people with electrosensitivity

than more sophisticated models, so he began driving his wife's old

Nissan, which he still uses.

 

He also found that being near the washing machine caused a pain in

his chest and watching television resulted in headaches.

 

Some rooms in his home caused him no problems, but in others his

symptoms would flare up.

 

By this time Brian had made contact with Alasdair Phillips,

scientific director of Powerwatch, an organisation that researches

electromagnetic fields. Alasdair's company, EMFields, sells

electrosmog detectors - devices that convert electromagnetic

radiation into noise.

 

Using one of these, Brian discovered that some rooms in his home had

higher levels of radiation than others. He concluded the radiation

was coming from a mobile phone mast about half a mile away, as the

rooms affected were those positioned closest to it.

 

Delighted to have identified the cause of his illness, Brian again

visited his doctor — and was shocked at his response.

 

" He told me that electrosensitivity did not exist and said now that

the brain scan had given me the all-clear, he thought my symptoms

were psychosomatic. I knew they weren't but it is intimidating when

a doctor says that. "

 

Things were getting worse. Within two years of first experiencing

head pains, Brian found that merely sleeping in a room with an

electricity supply for more than a few nights caused him to develop

pains all over his body and ringing in his ears.

 

At first he switched off the house electricity supply every night,

but as this caused the fridge-freezer to defrost, he had a special

extension built, using a silver-plated insulating material that

screens out virtually all radiation. This is where he now sleeps.

 

Although neither his wife nor his three grown-up children suffer

from the problem, they try to be sympathetic.

 

" The children get exasperated that they cannot watch the television

when they come to visit, " he says, " but they are very understanding.

It does make our home life challenging.

 

" One of the biggest problems is staying in hotels when I am in

London on business. If the room has wireless internet access, I wake

up at 1am trembling, with ringing in my ears. "

 

All electrical appliances have been removed from his office and his

secretary handles his e-mails. " Instead of doing presentations from

a laptop, we use slides and overhead projectors.

 

" If somebody needs to get hold of me, they leave a voicemail message

which I collect from a land line. I have never lost a contract

through being out of touch.

 

" Because I am the chief executive, I can modify my environment.

However, as a trustee of the EM Radiation Research Trust, which

lobbies for more research on electromagnetic radiation, I have met

many people who are severely electrosensitive like me. Everyone

apart from me has had to give up work. "

 

Nobody knows how many people in the UK suffer from

electrosensitivity because the symptoms vary from person to person

and the condition is not recognised by most doctors.

 

A review carried out by the Government's Health Protection Agency in

2005 estimated that somewhere between a few people per thousand and

a few per million are affected by symptoms they believe to have been

caused by electromagnetic radiation.

 

But others put the figure much higher. Professor Olle Johansson,

from the Karolinska Institute's department of neuroscience in

Sweden, where electrosensitivity is recognised as a disability,

estimates the prevalence of the condition in his country at three

per cent.

 

In the capital, Stockholm, sufferers can have their homes adapted to

screen out sources of electromagnetic radiation. They can even rent

council-owned cottages in areas of low radiation.

 

And according to a report published by the Swiss Government in

2005, " electricity supply systems, appliances and transmitters for

various wireless applications generate electrosmog that can be

harmful to our health " .

 

In contrast, the British Health protection Agency report

investigated various symptoms attributed to electrosensitivity,

including fatigue and headaches, but decided that there was no

proven link between them and exposure to electromagnetic radiation.

 

The World Health Organisation came to the same conclusion: " It has

been suggested that symptoms experienced by some individuals might

arise from environmental factors unrelated to electromagnetic

fields.

 

" Examples may include " flicker " from fluorescent lights, glare from

VDUs and poor ergonomic design of computer workstations.

 

" Other factors that may play a role include poor indoor air quality

or stress in the workplace.

 

" There are also indications that these symptoms may be due to pre-

existing psychiatric conditions as well as stress reactions as a

result of worrying about electromagnetic health effects, rather than

the exposure itself. "

 

" With most diseases, sufferers have roughly the same symptoms, but

people who have this condition show a variety of responses, " says

Professor Lawrie Challis, chairman of the Mobile Telecommunications

and Health Research Programme, which, though funded by the

Government and the mobile phone industry, is independent of both.

 

" The symptoms are real but we do not know what they are caused by. "

 

For the past five years, the research organisation has been

investigating the short-term effects of mobile phones and masts and

is due to publish the summary of this work in May.

 

" We have looked at a range of possible effects on memory, blood

pressure and inner ear function, " says Professor Challis.

 

" We have taken blood samples and measured hormones. These are high-

quality studies and the signs are that they do not show any short-

term effects from exposure to mobile phones.

 

" What we have found is that when extra-sensitive people are placed

in conditions where they do not know whether a mobile phone is on or

off, they are unable to tell more often than you would expect. "

 

Brian Stein believes the Government is reluctant to acknowledge the

danger posed by mobile phones because the industry generates around

£13 billion a year and brings large amounts into the state coffers

through taxes and the granting of licences.

 

Those who, like him, are convinced that electromagnetic radiation is

detrimental to health have suggested various theories as to why this

should be the case.

 

Some believe an allergic reaction is at work. Others argue that

pulsed radiation from mobiles or laptops using wi-fiinterferes with

the body's internal electro-chemical signalling systems.

 

The Reflex study, funded by the European Union, reported in 2004

that electromagnetic radiation caused DNA damage to cells in the

laboratory, but it said that this did not prove that mobile phones

could cause cancer.

 

Recently, however, more serious concerns about mobile phones have

begun to surface.

 

Some studies, including one published in the International Journal

of Cancer last month, suggest that there may be a correlation

between using mobile phones for ten years or more and an increased

risk of brain tumours, though the authors stress the link could be

due to chance or to bias in the research.

 

" This needs further investigation, " says Professor Challis. " Cancer

takes more than ten years to appear: we have seen that with

cigarettes, asbestos and the atomic bomb.

 

" We have no evidence so far of harm coming from mobile phones, but

that does not mean that there is no harm. We cannot sit around and

do nothing for the next ten years. Short-term experiments do not

tell us much about long-term effects. The only sure way of finding

out whether there are long-term effects is to study people's health

over a long period. "

 

Brian disputes that there is no evidence of harm from mobile phones

so far. He has received sheaves of letters from other sufferers

through his involvement with EM Radiation Research and the electro-

sensitivity support group ES-UK, and says there is plenty of

research to back up his belief.

 

" I don't doubt my sanity, but I am concerned about the sanity of the

rest of the world, " he says. " Scientists used to say the earth was

flat. I have no doubt that I will eventually be proved right. "

 

For further information contact: ES-UK www.electrosensitivity.org.uk

01353 778 151. Powerwatch, www.powerwatch.org.uk. EM-Radiation

Research Trust www.radiationresearch.org