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CX2SA > HEALTH 05.11.05 07:24l 99 Lines 4433 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 56325_CX2SA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Electricity no link to illness
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Sent: 051105/0510Z @:CX2SA.LAV.URY.SA #:56325 [Minas] FBB7.00e $:56325_CX2SA
From: CX2SA@CX2SA.LAV.URY.SA
To : HEALTH@WW
Electricity 'no link to illness'
================================
There is no scientific proof exposure to electrical equipment causes ill
health, say scientists.
Researchers from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) looked at research into
electrical sensitivity and reports from patients.
The HPA said people could have real and unpleasant symptoms.
But they said there was insufficient evidence of a direct link between
electrical exposure and these symptoms, which can often be disabling.
Electrical sensitivity is a condition which some people attribute to exposure
to electromagnetic fields associated with the electricity supply.
It is unclear how many people suffer from the condition, with estimates ranging
from a few per thousand people to a few per million.
Tingling skin
-------------
For the review, experts from the HPA's Radiation Protection Division looked at
scientific studies into electrical sensitivity, as well as other sources of
information, such as internet websites maintained by sufferers and self-help
groups.
But the researchers did not look at the effects of radiowaves from mobile
phones, as most of the studies which look at electrical sensitivity were
carried out before they were widely introduced.
From the research they evaluated, the HPA found there were two main groups of
symptoms attributed to electrical sensitivity, or electrical hypersensitivity.
People can experience skin symptoms, such as face tingling or redness, often
associated with using older types of visual display unit.
Others can experience a broader range of symptoms, such as fatigue and
headaches, which vary from person to person.
Most people are only mildly affected, but in around 10%, they are severe enough
to be disabling and hinder normal life.
The symptoms reported were similar to those found that people who attribute
illness to chemical and other environmental exposures.
Evidence reviewed
-----------------
However, scientific studies have not found a proven link between exposure to
electrical appliances, or power supplies, and symptoms.
In addition, no diagnostic marker - which would identify electrical sensitivity
as a defined condition - has been found.
Jill Meara, deputy director of the HPA's Radiation Protection Division, said it
had proved difficult to recreate the effects reported by patients in the lab.
She added: "If we go down the route of trying to look at the causes, we are
just going to reach an impasse, with one side saying one thing and the other
the opposite.
"What we should be doing is looking at treatments, either treating individual
symptoms such as headaches, or using things such as cognitive behavioural
therapy."
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We are not doing is disputing the
fact some individuals are experiencing very real symptoms.
"However, what we cannot say is that these are a result of exposure to
electromagnetic fields - as today's report, and other scientific evidence,
demonstrates."
Dr James Rubin, Mobile Phone Research Unit, King's College London School of
Medicine, said: "There is no doubt that people who say they have
electrosensitivity experience unpleasant symptoms, which can sometimes be quite
severe.
"However, there have now been over 30 studies done in this area, and at the
moment there is little to suggest that it is electrical fields that are causing
this ill health."
But Mike O'Carroll, of the anti-powerline group Revolt, said: "When they say
there is no evidence yet of causality, what they should be saying is that the
evidence so far doesn't give adequate support to the theory."
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