Woman Wins Disability Payout for WiFi 'Sensitivity'

Yahoo Health
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Electromagnetic radiation has been around since the universe first formed; it is, in its “most familiar form,” light, reports the World Health Organization. But as cellphone towers and gadgets proliferate, electromagnetic radiation has increased, and some claim a sensitivity to it.

One woman in France is now getting roughly $900 a month from the government in disability pay, reports the BBC. Marine Richard, 39, who says she’s had to move to a barn without electricity in a remote region of France to escape electromagnetic waves, calls the court’s decision a “breakthrough” for those who experience electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

But the court in Toulouse—which ruled last month that her symptoms stopped her from working—did not go so far as to call EHS an illness, reports Yahoo News UK.

Though people like Richard have claimed a range of adverse health symptoms, from headaches and nausea to loss of libido and depression, the WHO reports that “scientific evidence does not support a link” between the electromagnetic fields and the symptoms; that “scientific knowledge in this area is now more extensive than for most chemicals”; and that anxiety about exposure could be causing these health problems.

In the US, the parents of a 12-year-old boy at a Massachusetts school filed a lawsuit on Aug. 12 claiming that their son has been dealing with headaches, chest pains, nosebleeds, nausea, dizziness, and rashes since the school installed a new wireless network in 2013, reports ABC News. The family is asking for $250,000 in damages. (West Virginia is home to a town for those who say they’ve been sickened by WiFi.)

By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore

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This article originally appeared on Newser: Woman Wins Disability Payout for WiFi Sensitivity