Causes of Electrical Sensitivity

Electromagnetic Fields

“The density of radio waves around us is now 100 million to 200 million times the natural level reaching us from the sun. Nor is there any end in sight.”—Dr. Robert Becker, The Body Electric

Exposure to unnatural, man-made electromagnetic fields has reached unprecedented proportions and is getting worse every day. Although the man-made electrical and electronic technologies have a great number of benefits, we humans are also paying a high price in terms of poorer health, and for some people, this increased exposure to electromagnetic fields is not only extremely debilitating, it is life-threatening.

Why should electromagnetic fields pose such a serious hazard to our health? Let us use Albert Einstien’s famous equation as a starting point:


E represents energy
M represents mass
C represents a constant, namely the speed of light

This means that mass, or matter, is condensed energy. What appears to be solid is really composed of minute, specialized subatomic particles or energy packets. What are electromagnetic fields? A form of energy. Therefore, everything is made of energy. From a universal or metaphysical perspective, everything is part of one massive sea of energy: everything and everyone is really connected to and affects everything and everyone else. From this perspective, it is easy to understand how electromagnetic fields can have an affect on our health: the human body is an electromagnetic system, and as such it is affected by electromagnetic fields.

The sun is the best example of this: it is so hot that it keeps the Earth warm and can burn your skin. However, the electromagnetic fields emanating from cellular phones, microwave ovens, fluorescent lights and computers are more significant than you may realize: they can create a great amount of stress on the body. Strong man-made electromagnetic fields can actually burn out the nervous system. Unfortunately, most people do not believe that man-made electromagnetic fields are harmful until they start experiencing adverse health effects from them.

There are harmonious and inharmonious forms of electromagnetic fields. The sun emits harmonious radiation, beneficial to human health in moderation. The earth’s natural electromagnetic field is beneficial to human life. Most forms of man-made electromagnetic radiation are harmful to human health because they are inharmonious: they disrupt the functioning of the human body. From a health perspective, the average power level of man-made electromagnetic fields is not nearly as much of a concern as is the waveform. Microwave radiation that is pulsed with high peak power levels is very disruptive to the human body, even if the average power level is low.

Notwithstanding distruptive waveforms, intensity of the radiation source is still a very important factor in toxicity of electromagnetic fields. Electromagnetic fields are subject to the inverse-square law over distance, meaning that as a toxic radiation source is brought closer to the body, it becomes exponentially more harmful. For example, the strength of the field generated by a radiation source that is one foot away from the body is effectively four times stronger than the field of the same source when it is two feet away.

Accumulation or absorption of toxic energy from electromagnetic fields is a common symptom of electrosensitivity but it also perpetuates the illness. Electrosensitive people often have an allergic reaction to this accumulated toxic energy due to overexposure and/or weakness of the immune system.

I believe that almost everyone is affected to some degree by exposure to man-made sources of electromagnetic fields, although most people do not get extremely ill from such exposure. A body that is weakened by stress, physical and emotional toxins, poor nutrition and illness is more susceptible to the harmful effects of man-made electromagnetic fields. A whole new industry has been created to mitigate the harmful effects of man-made electromagnetic fields. Although the European medical community is more likely to acknowledge the adverse effects of electromagnetic fields, the North American medical community will inevitably do so as well.

Dr. Magda Havas has stated clearly in her book, Public Health SOS: The Shadow Side Of The Wireless Revolution, that “Radio frequency radiation and other forms of electromagnetic pollution are harmful at orders of magnitude well below existing guidelines. Science is one of the tools society uses to decide health policy. In the case of telecommunications equipment, such as cell phones, PDAs, and portable phones, the science is being ignored. Current guidelines urgently need to be re-examined by government and reduced to reflect the state of the science. There is an emerging public health crisis at hand and time is of the essence.” A thorough introduction to EMF health effects is the video of Cindy Sage on The BioInitiative Report: the conclusion is that the existing standards for EMF exposure are “thousands of times too high: it’s inescapable...and the consequences of not doing something about this are going to be huge in terms of public health, in terms of sickness for people, in terms of lower quality of life because people don’t feel well and don’t work well.... The biological effects that we see are occurring thousands of times lower than our standards.... Heating is irrelevant; it’s the information of the signal that counts.” Dr. Mercola has written an excellent introductory article on this topic: Raising Awareness about Electromagnetic Pollution.

I highly recommend that you watch Jeromy Johnson’s TED talk, “Wireless Wake-Up Call”: this may be the best layman’s introduction to the subject of electromagnetic pollution and its effects on human health. Jeromy also discusses ways that you can easily reduce exposure to electromagnetic fields and technologies that should be adopted by our culture to dramatically reduce exposure to them.

Emotional Stress