The Invisible Disease

The Dangers of Environmental Illnesses caused by Electromagnetic Fields and Chemical Emissions.

Author of the book: Gunni Nordström, journalist, Sweden

Abstract

The Invisible Disease

The Dangers of Environmental Illnesses caused by Electromagnetic Fields and Chemical Emissions.

Author of the book: Gunni Nordström, journalist, Sweden

Published by O´books, John Hunt-Publishing Ltd, 46 a West Street, New Alresford, Hampshire S0249AU, UK, 2004 Tel: 00 44 1962 736880 E-mail: Tämä sähköpostiosoite on suojattu roskapostia vastaan, aseta javascripttuki päälle nähdäksesi osoitteen.

As a Swedish trade union-journalist I have followed the phenomenon called electro-hypersensitivity since 1985. Before my first article about skin problems among people who worked in front of computers there had been no debate about this question in Sweden, although many persons had claimed that they got eye and skin problems and other symptoms from using computers as early as the l970s. Physicians, however, said that it was not possible to get any such problems from being in front of computers.

When it became known that a histopathologist, Björn Lagerholm at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, had seen that even very young computer-users had skin changes of a type that usually appears as a result of X-rays and over exposure to UV-light the debate started. Some young executives in their twenties looked as if they had worked as fishermen or farmers out in the sun for 60-70 years.

Nobody claimed that Björn Lagerholm was wrong but the authorities and experts declared that the radiation from the computers could not be the reason for the skin changes. Nobody suggested that it could be a question of a combined effect of chemicals in the electronic devices and electromagnetic radiation in form of UV-light and electromagnetic fields. Nobody thought of this until 1990 when an engineer, Per Hedemalm, MSc, suggested that the mechanism could be the same as that causing chronic light sensitivity, an illness known for decades. Light sensitivity appears in many forms and is a result of a combination of chemicals and electromagnetic radiation, usually UV-light but sometimes visible light. Sensitivity to light and an increasing sensibility to various chemicals belong to the typical symptoms among electro-hypersensitive people but also among other groups as they affected by multiple chemical sensitivity and chronic fatigue.

In my book I have interviewed Dr Joe LaDou, Division of Occupational Medicine at the University of California in San Fransisco. He has followed the health problems in the so called clean rooms in the microelectronic industry in Silicon Valley during many decades. He is convinced that the chemicals used in this industry give a lot of health problems.

In my book I draw the line from the microelectronics manufacturing industry to the electronic waste disposal via the normal use of electronic devices in workplaces and homes. Micro-electronic devices, for example computers and mobil phones, emit chemicals all the time. In the case of computers this fact was admitted by IBM as early as 1990, but experts on electro-hypersensitivity have not taken the connection seriously. Today we have thousands of people suffering from a world-wide Silicon Valley syndrome with various names in different countries but there is little or no research done to help them.

The message of the book is that a broader approach, looking into combinations of cause and effect, is necessary.

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