Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity: Massachusetts Family Sues School Over Son's Apparent 'Wi-Fi Allergy'
One in five Americans suffer from allergy or asthma symptoms, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Yet, there are still many misconceptions about these conditions and how we diagnose them. Although food allergies are thought to be uncommon, about one in 13 kids suffer from them. This means that sometimes it’s even harder to recognize or diagnose rare instances in which allergic reactions seem to occur — some people have even been diagnosed with water and cold air allergies. And now, a family in Massachusetts is suing their son’s school, alleging that its Wi-Fi is causing him to have allergic reactions.
The young boy’s symptoms began in the spring of 2013, when he began coming home from school with headaches, itchy skin, and a rash. However, the strangest aspect of the boy’s symptoms was when they appeared: only during school hours. According to a 45-page complaint filed by the boy’s family this summer, the symptoms never showed up during the weekends or holidays — only when he returned to school, the Daily Beast reported. Then, in 2014, the symptoms got worse; the boy began suffering from bloody noses, dizziness, heart palpitations, and nausea.
After his illness stumped doctors, the boy’s family took matters into their own hands. They discovered that The Fay School, which their son had attended since 2009, had installed a stronger wireless service in the spring of 2013, around the same time the boy’s symptoms began to show. Putting the two together, the boy’s mother decided that he suffered from electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), a condition caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), symptoms include redness, tingling, and burning sensations, fatigue, tiredness, concentration difficulties, dizziness, nausea, heart palpitations, and digestive disturbances. All of these were consistent with the symptoms the boy reported. Calling his condition a disability, the boy’s parents called on the school to adopt an Ethernet connection or find a way to lower the Wi-Fi connection’s electromagnetic emissions, according to the lawsuit.
However, EHS is shrouded in mystery. According to WHO, symptoms of EHS are real, however, “the collection of symptoms is not part of any recognized syndrome.” Most people who have EHS are reportedly self-diagnosed. And in a 2010 study published in Bioelectromagnetics, Dr. James Rubin performed a systematic review of 46 different blind or double blind studies on 1,175 individuals who self-diagnosed themselves as having EHS and found that there was no evidence that EHS alone was causing the symptoms. Rather, the condition may be more closely related to mental health, as participants experienced similar reactions when exposed to electromagnetism that wasn’t actually there. “As sham exposure was sufficient to trigger severe symptoms in some participants,” Rubin wrote, “psychological factors may have an important role in causing this condition.”