News story today about a woman described as "allergic to electricity".
Some of the comments below this article are very rude, insensitive and ignorant, I'm afraid...but what's new?...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8520405/Meet-the-woman-allergic-to-electricity.html
Meet the woman allergic to electricity
A British woman cannot use an electric kettle, keeps her washing machine in a concrete outhouse and cannot have neighbours with wireless internet because she is allergic to electricity.
Janice Tunnicliffe spends every night playing Scrabble by candlelight with her husband because she claims to have a rare condition called electrosensitivity.
She cannot bear to be anywhere near electromagnetic fields of any kind and, as a result, she cannot watch television, listen to the radio or talk on a mobile phone and has been left completely isolated from the modern world by her condition.
Mrs Tunnicliffe, 55, was struck down with the illness after receiving chemotherapy for bowel cancer three years ago.
Since then she has suffered constant headaches, chest pains, nausea and tingling in her arms and legs whenever she is near electrical devices or items that emit a signal.
Her only relief in this time was when her village, near Mansfield in rural Nottinghamshire, suffered a temporary power cut.
BioScholar News:
http://news.bioscholar.com/2011/05/a-british-woman-who-cant-use-electricity.html
Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...gets-lives-candlelight.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
This is Nottingham:
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/n...ectricity/article-3572889-detail/article.html
While on this subject, a physicist friend of mine with an interest in this subject has tracked down the following paper on the physiology of electrical sensitivity, which is especially interesting for us because it focuses on evidence for the disturbance of the immune system in electrosensitive individuals.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19398310
Disturbance of the immune system by electromagnetic fields-A potentially underlying cause for cellular damage and tissue repair reduction which could lead to disease and impairment.
Johansson O.
The Experimental Dermatology Unit, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract
A number of papers dealing with the effects of modern, man-made electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on the immune system are summarized in the present review. EMFs disturb immune function through stimulation of various allergic and inflammatory responses, as well as effects on tissue repair processes. Such disturbances increase the risks for various diseases, including cancer. These and the EMF effects on other biological processes (e.g. DNA damage, neurological effects, etc.) are now widely reported to occur at exposure levels significantly below most current national and international safety limits. Obviously, biologically based exposure standards are needed to prevent disruption of normal body processes and potential adverse health effects of chronic exposure. Based on this review, as well as the reviews in the recent Bioinitiative Report [http://www.bioinitiative.org/] [C.F. Blackman, M. Blank, M. Kundi, C. Sage, D.O. Carpenter, Z. Davanipour, D. Gee, L. Hardell, O. Johansson, H. Lai, K.H. Mild, A. Sage, E.L. Sobel, Z. Xu, G. Chen, The Bioinitiative Report-A Rationale for a Biologically-based Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF), 2007)], it must be concluded that the existing public safety limits are inadequate to protect public health, and that new public safety limits, as well as limits on further deployment of untested technologies, are warranted.
Some of the comments below this article are very rude, insensitive and ignorant, I'm afraid...but what's new?...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8520405/Meet-the-woman-allergic-to-electricity.html
Meet the woman allergic to electricity
A British woman cannot use an electric kettle, keeps her washing machine in a concrete outhouse and cannot have neighbours with wireless internet because she is allergic to electricity.
Janice Tunnicliffe spends every night playing Scrabble by candlelight with her husband because she claims to have a rare condition called electrosensitivity.
She cannot bear to be anywhere near electromagnetic fields of any kind and, as a result, she cannot watch television, listen to the radio or talk on a mobile phone and has been left completely isolated from the modern world by her condition.
Mrs Tunnicliffe, 55, was struck down with the illness after receiving chemotherapy for bowel cancer three years ago.
Since then she has suffered constant headaches, chest pains, nausea and tingling in her arms and legs whenever she is near electrical devices or items that emit a signal.
Her only relief in this time was when her village, near Mansfield in rural Nottinghamshire, suffered a temporary power cut.
BioScholar News:
http://news.bioscholar.com/2011/05/a-british-woman-who-cant-use-electricity.html
Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...gets-lives-candlelight.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
This is Nottingham:
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/n...ectricity/article-3572889-detail/article.html
While on this subject, a physicist friend of mine with an interest in this subject has tracked down the following paper on the physiology of electrical sensitivity, which is especially interesting for us because it focuses on evidence for the disturbance of the immune system in electrosensitive individuals.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19398310
Disturbance of the immune system by electromagnetic fields-A potentially underlying cause for cellular damage and tissue repair reduction which could lead to disease and impairment.
Johansson O.
The Experimental Dermatology Unit, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract
A number of papers dealing with the effects of modern, man-made electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on the immune system are summarized in the present review. EMFs disturb immune function through stimulation of various allergic and inflammatory responses, as well as effects on tissue repair processes. Such disturbances increase the risks for various diseases, including cancer. These and the EMF effects on other biological processes (e.g. DNA damage, neurological effects, etc.) are now widely reported to occur at exposure levels significantly below most current national and international safety limits. Obviously, biologically based exposure standards are needed to prevent disruption of normal body processes and potential adverse health effects of chronic exposure. Based on this review, as well as the reviews in the recent Bioinitiative Report [http://www.bioinitiative.org/] [C.F. Blackman, M. Blank, M. Kundi, C. Sage, D.O. Carpenter, Z. Davanipour, D. Gee, L. Hardell, O. Johansson, H. Lai, K.H. Mild, A. Sage, E.L. Sobel, Z. Xu, G. Chen, The Bioinitiative Report-A Rationale for a Biologically-based Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF), 2007)], it must be concluded that the existing public safety limits are inadequate to protect public health, and that new public safety limits, as well as limits on further deployment of untested technologies, are warranted.
