23/09/2005 - HPA-RPD soon to issue a report on Electrical Hypersensitivity

"Epidemiology and Management of Electrical Hypersensitivity"
by Dr Neil Irvine, Regional Epidemiologist, CDSC (HPA-Belfast), Northern Ireland.

The new HPA-RPD (NRPB) report on ES has been delayed and is now expected to be published in the first week of October. We believe that this forthcoming Health Protection Agency Report will acknowledge ES / EHS as a multi-faceted syndrome, and set the scene for it being a recognised valid diagnosis and calls for more research into treatment and causes.

We are hoping that it has not been "watered down" to come in line with current WHO thinking that ES is "all in the mind" and not to do with the physical reality electromagnetic fields. "People are just getting paranoid about reported so-called dangers of EMFs and this is making them ill", we have been told.

Our Electrosmog Detector is apparently "just a scaremongering device", according to Mike Repacholi of WHO's EMF Project. Mind you, he is also recently reported in New Scientist as saying that the worst effects of the Chernobyl nuclear accident are mental health problems brought on by too much worry - leading to excess drinking and unsafe sex! An interesting idea Mike, but it doesn't do much for the public credibility of the World Health Organisation.

At least two premature press stories circulated on the 11th and 12th September. These are reproduced below, together with the HPA-RPD Press Response.

- Original article in the Sunday Times
- Original article in the Daily Mail

Forthcoming Review on Electrosensitivity

Recent newspaper articles about a forthcoming report from the Health Protection Agency are speculative, and various assertions about its contents are inaccurate. (Sunday Times, 11 Sept 2005; Daily Mail, 12 September 2005).

The report will be a scientific review of the topic of electrosensitivity with a public health perspective. It will not be a definitive statement of policy from the Board of the Health Protection Agency. The Board of the Agency is not in a position to make a decision on whether electrosensitivity is a "medical condition" or not. This is for the medical profession to decide on an international basis.

The report will be published next month with a press release summarising its contents. This will be available to news media under embargo.

HPA Press Statement
Forthcoming Review on Electrosensitivity