is electro-sensitivity a disease?

NEWS. Has the departmental house for people with disabilities (MDPH) of Essonne decided alone a debate that still divides the experts? This is the question that arises following the compensation of a man in his thirties for his electro-sensitivity a few weeks ago. The MDPH has indeed decided to give him several thousand euros for three years to equip him. And this despite the fact that the effect of waves on humans is still not the subject of scientific consensus.

What is electro-sensitivity? Electromagnetic sensitivity, or electro-sensitivity, is a condition that some people claim to suffer from and is believed to be caused and aggravated by electromagnetic fields or waves.

The symptoms, described and recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), are manifested, among other things, by physical and psychological suffering, fatigue, insomnia or even digestive disorders.

Jonathan’s case. In mid-April, the subject arrived on the table in France when, for the first time, a 32-year-old man living in Essonne was compensated by the MDPH for this pathology. Through this, the departmental center for people with disabilities recognized a causal link between the waves and his illness.

Unemployed, the young man has already spent thousands of euros to insulate his house from the airwaves. At home, the walls are lined with emergency blankets, a silver thread canopy overhangs his bed. All, according to him, to block the waves that surround him.

The decision of the MDPH. And it is precisely to repay these investments and finance the next ones that the departmental house for disabled people in Essonne has decided to give him several thousand euros a year for three years. Jonathan, medically followed, is in a distress which motivated the decision of the institution.

“In his medical file, there was really enough to support a positive opinion according to the doctors, because his state of health is really very degraded”, declares to Europe 1 Marjolaine Rauze, the vice-president of the general council of Essonne , on which the MDPH depends.

No scientific consensus. However, officially, electro-sensitivity is still not recognized as a disease in its own right. In its study published in 2005 on the subject, the WHO recognized the existence of the symptoms, but did not prove the causal link with the presence of waves. “There are no clear diagnostic criteria (…), nor scientific basis allowing to link the symptoms (…) to EMF (electromagnetic fields, editor’s note)”, explains the institution. At the end of 2013, the French health security agency supported this idea after a study on the subject. “The conclusions of the risk assessment do not highlight any proven health effects”, then explains ANSES.

In its report, the WHO also adds that there is “some evidence that these symptoms may be due to pre-existing psychiatric illnesses, as well as stress reactions resulting from fear inspired by the possible health effects of EMC”. For André Aurengo, head of the nuclear medicine department at the Pitié hospital, member of the medical academy, electro-sensitivity is indeed linked to psychology. “What is needed is to teach people to tame their relationship with the waves, it’s something psychological. It must be treated by going to attack the cause of the disorder”, he analyzes at the microphone of Europe 1.

>> READ ALSO – Waves: should we be worried?

The waves, a danger? Despite everything, the question of the waves remains posed for several reasons. First, as the symptoms are recognised, the discomfort some people suffer from is real. For some, the problem is such that they are forced to move and sometimes live in campsites or mobile homes. The situation can sometimes take a dramatic turn. At the end of March, a woman went so far as to climb to the top of a crane to claim new accommodation in Hauts-de-Seine.

Finally, even if the WHO has not established a direct link between electro-sensitivity and the waves, it nevertheless recognized the latter as “possible carcinogen” in 2011. In October 2012, the Italian courts had even judged the mobile and its waves guilty of cancer. Not enough to reassure Jonathan then.

FACTS – Compensated for his electro-sensitivity, a first

CLAIM – Electro-sensitive, she takes refuge on top of a crane

NEWS – Motive found guilty of cancer

ZOOM – Cancer: where are you with received ideas?