Hypersensitivity symptoms associated with exposure to cellular telephones: No causal link

Abstract

The hypothesis that there exist hypersensitive persons who perceive subjective symptoms from radiofrequency (RF) fields emitted by hand held mobile phones (cellular phones) was tested using double blind provocation experiments. We also tested whether sensitive subjects are able to determine whether the phone is on or off by sensing RF fields. The study group consisted of 20 volunteers (13 women and 7 men) who reported themselves as being sensitive to cellular phones. The RF exposure sources were one analogue NMT phone (900 MHz) and two digital GSM phones (900 and 1800 MHz). The duration of a test session was 30 min, and three or four sessions were performed in random order for each subject during 1 day. The subjects were asked to report symptoms or sensations as soon as they perceived any abnormal feelings. In addition, the subjects' blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing frequency were monitored every 5 min. The results of the study indicated that various symptoms were reported, and most of them appeared in the head region. However, the number of reported symptoms was higher during sham exposure than during real exposure conditions. In addition, none of the test persons could distinguish real RF exposure from sham exposure. Hence, we conclude that adverse subjective symptoms or sensations, though unquestionably perceived by the test subjects, were not produced by cellular phones.

The prevalence of symptoms attributed to electromagnetic field exposure: a cross-sectional representative survey in Switzerland

“…The phenomenon of subjective adverse health effects attributed to EMFs is often referred to as electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS). The symptoms most commonly associated with EHS are non-specifi c health complaints such as concentration diffi culties, nervousness, distress, headache and sleep disorders (David et al 2002;Hietanen et al 2002;Raczek et al 2000). Symptoms have been attributed to extremely low frequency sources such as power lines or electrical devices, although over the last 10 years high frequency sources from mobile communication technologies have come increasingly into public focus.…”

Effects of mobile phone radiation on heart rate: a radiation-detector controlled pilot study

“…A significantly lowered heart rate under RF-EMF exposure has also been reported in a study on 288 rats (Colak, et al, 2012) and in a Finnish study on human subjects (using by a 900 MHz mobile 289 phone) (Hietanen, et al, 2002). Although the authors of the latter study attributed the observed 290 lowered heart rate to initial "mental strain and nervousness of the volunteers", their observed 291 decrease might in fact be due to mobile phone radiation.…”

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity in the light of empirical results

“…A jelenség jellemzôen több szervrendszerre kiterjedô, nem-specifikus tünetek formájában ölt testet (Hietanen, Hämäläinen, & Husman, 2002). Korábban, kiváltképp a képernyôk sugárzására érzékenyek körében, az arcbôrön jelentkezô kellemetlen érzetek (sajgás, viszketés, égetô érzés), valamint komolyabb elváltozások, mint az ekcéma, eritéma, rozácea szá-mítottak a leggyakoribbnak.…”