by Meris Michaels, 29 July 2016
Awareness of the health risks of wireless technology in French-speaking Switzerland ("Suisse Romande") is at best poor, worse - almost non-existent. There are only a few doctors diagnosing and treating electrosensitivity, although physicians practicing holistic or integrative medicine may be doing so. Such doctors are rare and cannot take on new patients. There seems to be an unhealthy collusion among doctors to ignore this issue, either out of ignorance, because wireless is everywhere in their offices and in hospitals and clinics, medical education does not include emerging environmental illnesses in its curriculum, and/or they are scared to go against the powerful telecoms industry which is a vital part of the Swiss economy.
We doubt that "Suisse Romande" has ever heard of the environmental medicine counselling structure for electrohypersensitive persons established by the Society of Doctors for the Environment. One health insurance company promotes mobile phone subscriptions for families, including young children. Confronted by an advocacy group for safer wireless, they replied by asking for the names of the group's committee members and saying, the group's description of risks was "alarmist". A major department store sells babyphones for very young children. The group drew attention to health risks and to the harmful exposure of factory workers in China producing these and received a defensive reply. Others, who have written to the health and disability insurance authorities, have received unsatisfactory replies. And yet, the health warnings are there on the sites of the federal government, the Cancer League, and in manuals for mobile phones, virtual reality headsets, smart watches, etc.
