EHS (electro-hypersensitive persons): where and how do they live in France?

EHS (electro-hypersensitive persons): where and how do they live in France?

by Alice Pouilloux, nexus.fr, 20 May 2020 - translation

Some electro-hypersensitive (EHS) persons have taken refuge in temporary housing, others have spent most of their confinement under protective tissues. For them, as for the 3.3 million French people of which I am a part, hell is wireless radiation. ◆ Electro-hypersensitive people, pariahs Being EHS is, for example, as in my case, to suffer the pain of [...]

◆ The electro-hypersensitive, pariahs...

Being EHS means, for example, as in my case, suffering from unbearable headaches in the presence of a smartphone twenty meters away, an internet box two floors below or close to a desk lamp. For many EHS sufferers, confinement represented an increase in their symptoms because of the neighbors who were connected all day long. A vital necessity in this case, to flee... but where? White zones are disappearing, the government has set a target in 2018 with the Élan law.  Public space is forbidden to these outcasts in hyper-connected times: many EHS cannot frequent public transport, café terraces, hospitals, places of culture, education and worship.  Depending on the degree of impairment, working is impossible.

◆ The proven effects of electromagnetic waves

ANSES (National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety) has recognized electro-hypersensitivity since 2018: a giant step forward according to associations. However, there is a struggle for the causal link with exposure to artificial electromagnetic fields (resulting from wireless technologies in particular) to be accepted despite the very many uncontested international studies. Alzheimer's, cancer, infertility, electro-hypersensitivity (EHS) are some of the possible consequences of exposure to electromagnetic fields indicated in nearly 2,000 studies since 2012 and referenced in this document from the association Poem26. A study by Dr. Belpomme and Dr. Irigaray, published in March 2020, confirms the link between artificial electromagnetic waves and electro-hypersensitivity. For Dr. Béatrice Milbert, a physician-researcher who pioneered electro-hypersensitivity in France, "electrosensitive people are environmental sentinels, clearly indicating that the density of the electromagnetic field in the environment exceeds the measurements acceptable to the human body" (you can read our full interview with Béatrice Milbert in the next issue of Nexus n°128 available on nexus.fr in early June). The specialists' prognosis is chilling: there will be 50% EHS people within 50 years if nothing is done.

◆ How do you get sick from electromagnetic radiation?

The pathology sometimes sets in from one day to the next when Enedis' Linky power line carrier current is put into service, as Dr. Béatrice Milbert, who has been receiving EHS persons in consultation for 20 years, testifies, or when 5G antennas are put into service as reported by Swiss people in Geneva. More often than not, however, the process takes several years. The person initially suffers from mild symptoms when exposed to wireless technologies (headaches when making phone calls with a smartphone for example). Then, in the absence of protection, there is a shift to more and more acute symptoms in the presence of extended frequencies, such as in front of a WiFi computer, an induction plate or a high-voltage line: tachycardia, ringing in the ears, muscle pain or chest tightness may set in.

◆ Three ways to heal oneself

To take care of oneself, it is essential to avoid all types of pollution, especially electromagnetic and chemical pollution. It is also necessary to eliminate pollutants from the body such as parasites or heavy metals that amplify inflammation, as well as to support the nervous system and rebalance the body as a whole. A whole program at the end of which, after several years, about 60% of patients return to an almost normal life. In practice, for many EHS persons, the allowance for a disabled adult (granted in some departments) is not enough to shield housing and finance medical treatment, which is not reimbursed by Social Security. Sweden, where 10% of the population is recognized as EHS, is often cited as an example: the pathology is considered as a handicap, financial assistance is allocated and the costs of shielding housing are covered.

◆ Prospects and powerlessness

A few initiatives are emerging in France: in December 2019, a dozen parliamentarians introduced a bill to allow EHS people to build their homes on land that could not be built on outside electromagnetic radiation. The Aubervilliers town hall project is more certain to succeed and is supervised by David Bruno with Ondes-expertise: 7 rooms in a white zone in his new library. In Paris, the hotel Le Pavillon even has three special shielded rooms for electro-sensitive people, with protection from low and high frequencies. The Zone Blanche association, for its part, plans to open an eco-village / research center for EHS people in the Hautes-Alpes within 5 years at the earliest. In the meantime, major cities are testing 5G (see our article on 5G antenna power) and the "new mobile deal", a plan that brings together the government, operators and ARCEP (Electronic Communications, Postal and Print media distribution Regulatory Authority), provides for the development of new 5G-equipped mobile sites in rural areas "in order to strengthen network coverage and quality". These days, somewhere in a small white zone in Brittany, Danièle, an electro-hypersensitive person who is recognized as disabled, demonstrates her powerlessness. She has taken refuge from electromagnetic radiation in her caravan parked in a public car park in the forest and is now threatened with expulsion by the National Forestry Office. She doesn't know where to go, electromagnetic pollution is everywhere. Her situation reveals the extreme difficulty that EHS persons in France have in finding shelter and ultimately concerns all French people, who are increasingly exposed to electromagnetic radiation on a massive scale.

Alice Pouilloux

Original article in French:
https://www.nexus.fr/actualite/sante/ehs-france/