Electrohypersensitivity is declared a cause of permanent disablity in Spain – but still not recognised elsewhere

In a landmark ruling the Labour Court in Madrid has declared that a college professor who suffers from chronic fatigue and environmental and electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) should be classed as permanently disabled.

Thanks to WEEP News for the following report:

Spain, September 2011
This has been ruled by the Labour Court to declare Madrid 24 permanent incapacitation of a college professor who suffered from chronic fatigue and environmental and electromagnetic hypersensitivity. The ruling is unique in this regard and make a precedent for future conditions related to hypersensitivity to these waves. The verdict was issued on 23 May and gave the teacher 100% of his base salary, which amounted to 1640.80 euros.

Team Assessment of the Social Security disability (EVI), recognized in clinical diagnosis: chronic fatigue syndrome, celiac disease, fibromyalgia syndrome and environmental electromagnetic hypersensitivity, yet they dismissed the patient's disability.

The Labour Court in Madrid again puts into question the criteria for the granting of this degree by the provincial leadership of the national institute, and recognizes the rights of the applicant stating that presents enormous problems for the performance of their tasks " with appropriate level of professionalism and performance. "

Legal Medical Group would like to echo this statement pioneer in the defense of those who are entitled to a permanent disability pension, and upholds the spirit of not giving any circumstances for lost, when there is sufficient medical and legal basis. Legal Medical Group is a pioneer in the defense of those who apply for disability, accident or illness, advising them from a technical point of view, medical and legal since 1978.
On Legal Medical Group

However, Spain stands alone in recognising ES or EHS as a cause of disability although in Sweden it is recognised as a 'functional impairment' – elsewhere it has no 'medical' status. However, increasingly both the media and interested groups of both scientists and sufferers are raising the profile of the condition and questioning whether a more precautionary approach should not be taken to the massive worldwide increase in electromagnetic pollution from mobile phones, wifi networks, smart meters and medical devices.

In the UK local disputes between those who are anxious to improve their broadband access and those who fear that phone towers on church spires will be detrimental to the health of the local population are increasingly common (see, for example, the BBC report on the Norfolk church wifi scheme). In France there is an ongoing dispute between ES sufferers who have set up a 'refuge' in the Vendée and the local authorities who want to install mobile phone towers. In the US, especially in Californio, electrosensitive people, or those who are concerned about the increase in electromagnetic pollution, are fighting on going battles with the local service providers, some successfully (see Susan Foster's post), many less successfully.

But the arguments are now out there and being aired and while there remains much genuine scepticism about the dangers of EM pollution (quite apart from the financially motivated scepticism of the mobile phone and wifi network providers) there is also a growing concern, even in such conservative bodies as the WHO (see the IARC's classification of mobile hones as a Group 2b carcinogen), that a more precautionary approach should be taken.

For the latest media report on sensitivity see the BBC's report on Green Bank, West Virginia, which is part of the US Radio Quiet Zone, where wireless is banned across 13,000 sq miles and which has now become home to a number of ES 'refugees' from across the US.

 

Click here for more articles on the health risks of ES

09/11

 

Top of page