Provocation study of persons with perceived electrical hypersensitivity and controls using magnetic field exposure and recording of electrophysiological characteristics.
Lyskov E, Sandström M, Mild KH · 2001
View Original AbstractPeople with electromagnetic hypersensitivity showed no response to magnetic fields but had distinctly different stress physiology at baseline.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed 20 people with electromagnetic hypersensitivity and 20 healthy controls to magnetic fields while monitoring their bodies. Magnetic fields didn't affect either group, but hypersensitive individuals showed different heart rate and stress patterns, suggesting they may have heightened sensitivity to environmental stressors generally.
Why This Matters
This study adds important nuance to our understanding of electromagnetic hypersensitivity by revealing that people with EHS have measurably different physiological profiles even without EMF exposure. The 10 microtesla exposure level used here is roughly 100 times higher than typical household magnetic field levels, yet produced no detectable effects in either group. What's particularly significant is that EHS patients showed altered heart rate variability and electrodermal activity at baseline, suggesting their symptoms may stem from a broader sensitivity to environmental stressors rather than EMFs specifically. This doesn't invalidate their very real symptoms, but it points toward the complex interplay between individual physiology, environmental factors, and health outcomes that characterizes much of EMF research.
Exposure Details
- Magnetic Field
- 0.01 mG
- Source/Device
- 60 Hz
- Exposure Duration
- 40 min
Exposure Context
This study used 0.01 mG for magnetic fields:
- 500x above the Building Biology guideline of 0.2 mG
- 100x above the BioInitiative Report recommendation of 1 mG
Building Biology guidelines are practitioner-based limits from real-world assessments. BioInitiative Report recommendations are based on peer-reviewed science. Check Your Exposure to compare your own measurements.
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
The aim of the present study was to investigate possible neurophysiological effects of intermittent 15 sec on/off cycle, 60 Hz, 10 μT magnetic field exposure on patients with perceived “electromagnetic hypersensitivity” (EHS), and control subjects during rest and performance of a mental arithmetic task.
Twenty participants (15 female, 5 male, 31–60 years old, mean 45.8 ± 0.7 years) were invited from th...
The data showed significant main effects of the Group factor (EHS vs. control subjects) on heart rat...
These data do not indicate that EHS patients or control are affected by low-level 60 Hz magnetic field exposure. However, persons reporting EHS differed from the control subjects in baseline values of investigated physiological characteristics. Perhaps EHS patients have a rather distinctive physiological predisposition to sensitivity to physical and psychosocial environmental stressors.
Show BibTeX
@article{e_2001_provocation_study_of_persons_497,
author = {Lyskov E and Sandström M and Mild KH},
title = {Provocation study of persons with perceived electrical hypersensitivity and controls using magnetic field exposure and recording of electrophysiological characteristics.},
year = {2001},
doi = {10.1002/bem.73},
url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.73},
}