ABSTRACT
Much of the controversy over the causes of electro-hypersensitivity (EHS) and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) lies in the absence of both recognized clinical criteria and objective biomarkers for widely accepted diagnosis. However, there are, presently, sufficient clinical, biological, and radiological data for EHS to be acknowledged as a distinctly well-defined, objectively identified, and characterized neurologic pathological disorder. Therefore, patients who self-report suffering from EHS should be diagnosed and treated on the basis of currently available biological tests and 299the use of suitable cerebral imaging. Because we have shown that EHS is frequently associated with MCS in EHS patients and that both those individualized clinical entities share a common pathophysiological mechanism for symptom occurrence, it appears that EHS and MCS can be identified as a unique neurologic pathological syndrome, whatever their precise causal origin is. In this review, we distinguish the etiology of EHS itself from the environmental causes that trigger symptoms and subsequent pathophysiological changes after EHS occurrence. Contrary to present scientifically unfounded claims, we indubitably refute the hypothesis of a nocebo effect to account for the genesis of EHS and its presentation in EHS self-reported patients. We also refute the erroneous concept that EHS could be reduced to a vague “functional impairment”. The hypersensitivity that characterizes EHS appears to be a persistent and most often irreversible pathological state, as is also the case for sensitivity to chemicals in MCS-bearing patients. Taken into consideration the WHO-proposed causality criteria, we argue that EHS may, in fact, be causally related to increased exposure to man-made electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and, in a limited number of cases, to marketed environmental chemicals. We, therefore, appeal to all governments and international health institutions and, more particularly, the WHO to urgently consider this growing EHS-associated pandemic plague and to acknowledge EHS as a new real disorder.
