Hypersensitivity test to electric magnetic fields

The so-called electromagnetic hypersensitivity (RH) syndrome includes a number of unspecific, medically unexplained symptoms attributed to exposure to electric and magnetic fields. As a whole, laboratory tests have provided inconclusive results, in part due to the fact that many individuals show nuclear, inconsistent responses to repeated experimental field-exposures. It has been proposed that such inconsistencies could be due in part to distress caused by the lab test itself. We have developed a test to be conducted at the patient's residence, allowing for long-term follow up of exposure-response assessment and avoiding the laboratory environment and the presence of the researcher as potential stressors and confounding factors. In a pilot test, EMDEX-II magnetometers were used to continuously recording power-frequency magnetic fields in the residence of a patient with perceived EH. The patient's symptoms included distress, headache and dizziness, among other ailments. Magnetographic data of a total of 123 recording days were plotted against the corresponding data on occurrence of the symptoms episodes. As a whole, the results did not show positive linear correlation between the daily occurrence of the episode and the exposures levels recorded during the day or during the day before. These preliminary results are little supportive of the hypothesis that the patient's ailments are caused or worsened by a putative hypersensitivity to residential exposure to power-frequency magnetic fields in the 0.02-4.00 μT range. (Author) 29 refs