PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Radiation and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1603692
This article is part of the Research TopicIndividual Sensitivity to Wireless RadiationView all 6 articles
Electrohypersensitivity: what is belief and what is known?
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- 2The National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration West, Bristol, England, United Kingdom
- 3Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Basel, Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland
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Electrohypersensitivity (EHS), or idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF), is a condition with fluid and transient symptoms associated to exposure to non-ionizing radiation by people claiming to suffer from it. However, the scientific evidence linking the exposure to the reported effects to date has eluded researchers, and may not even exist. In the current perspective we outline what is objectively known about EMF as the cause for EHS and what is based on anecdotal information only. We discuss why randomized provocation trials were considered the most appropriate research methodology to elucidate causal links between EMF exposure and effects in a scientifically robust manner, what the main arguments against such studies are, and whether these criticisms are valid. Finally, we synthesize the evidence and beliefs around EHS and provide future directions of research and practice.
Keywords: electrohypersensitivity (EHS), Electromagnetic radiation (EMR), Electromagnetic fields (EMF), IEI-EMF, Provocation (challenge) tests, Research methodologies and methods
Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 24 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 de Vocht and Röösli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Frank de Vocht, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
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