{
  "id": "studies:who-ehs-2005",
  "collection": "studies",
  "slug": "who-electromagnetic-hypersensitivity",
  "name": "WHO position on electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS)",
  "summary": "WHO recognises that people report real and sometimes disabling symptoms they attribute to EMF, while provocation studies have not shown that participants can detect field presence or that symptoms track actual exposure.",
  "status": "verified",
  "lastVerified": "2026-08-12",
  "data": {
    "authors": "World Health Organization",
    "year": 2005,
    "design": "systematic-review",
    "exposure": "Self-reported sensitivity to a range of EMF sources",
    "finding": "Symptoms are genuine and can be severe, but blinded provocation studies do not support EMF exposure as their cause; WHO describes the condition as idiopathic environmental intolerance and recommends clinical evaluation of the symptoms themselves.",
    "limitations": "Provocation studies vary widely in design, exposure characterisation, and participant selection, and a physiological mechanism has neither been demonstrated nor ruled out. This record describes the WHO position; it is not medical advice and does not dismiss individual experience.",
    "weight": "contested",
    "url": "https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/radiation-and-health/non-ionizing/hypersensitivity",
    "related": [
      "limits:europaem-2016-wifi-night",
      "questions:is-emf-sensitivity-real"
    ]
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "who-ehs",
      "title": "Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (WHO backgrounder, December 2005; formerly Fact sheet 296)",
      "publisher": "World Health Organization",
      "url": "https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/radiation-and-health/non-ionizing/hypersensitivity",
      "year": 2005,
      "kind": "government",
      "retrieved": "2026-08-12"
    }
  ],
  "links": {
    "self": "https://emfbase.com/api/studies/who-electromagnetic-hypersensitivity",
    "html": "https://emfbase.com/studies/who-electromagnetic-hypersensitivity",
    "markdown": "https://emfbase.com/studies/who-electromagnetic-hypersensitivity.md",
    "collection": "https://emfbase.com/api/studies"
  }
}