# EHS (electromagnetic hypersensitivity)

> Symptoms attributed by the affected person to EMF exposure; recognised as real symptoms by WHO, without a demonstrated causal link to field exposure in blinded studies.

- Canonical URL: https://emfbase.com/glossary/ehs
- Collection: Glossary
- Record id: `glossary:ehs`
- Status: verified
- Last verified: 2026-08-12
- JSON: https://emfbase.com/api/glossary/ehs

## Key values

- **Category:** health

## Definition

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity, referred to by WHO as idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields, describes a symptom complex including headache, fatigue, sleep disturbance and skin sensations. WHO's position is that the symptoms are genuine and can be disabling, while blinded provocation studies have not shown that affected individuals can detect field presence or that symptoms track actual exposure. This site records the position and the primary literature; it does not offer medical advice.

## Sources

- `who-ehs` World Health Organization (2005). *Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (WHO backgrounder, December 2005; formerly Fact sheet 296)*. https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/radiation-and-health/non-ionizing/hypersensitivity — government, link checked 2026-08-12
- `europaem-2016` European Academy for Environmental Medicine (2016). *EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems*. https://europaem.eu/en/library/blog-en/97-europaem-emf-guideline-2016 — ngo, link checked 2026-08-12

Data licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Dataset version 2026.08.1. Retrieved from EMFBase, https://emfbase.com.

This record is reference data, not medical or legal advice. Regulatory limits, scientific guidelines and precautionary values are labelled separately and answer different questions.