# What symptoms do people attribute to EMF?

> Headache, fatigue, concentration and sleep problems, dizziness, palpitations, tinnitus and skin sensations — non-specific, not a recognised syndrome, and with many common alternative causes that WHO and ANSES say should be evaluated clinically first.

- Canonical URL: https://emfbase.com/questions/what-symptoms-are-attributed-to-emf
- Collection: Direct answers
- Record id: `questions:what-symptoms-are-attributed-to-emf`
- Status: verified
- Last verified: 2026-08-12
- JSON: https://emfbase.com/api/questions/what-symptoms-are-attributed-to-emf
- Also known as: EHS symptoms list, electrosensitivity symptoms, EMF sickness symptoms

## Key values

- **Topic:** health

## Question

Which symptoms are reported by people who believe they are sensitive to EMF?

## Answer

The reported symptom set is broad and non-specific: headache, fatigue, difficulty concentrating and memory complaints, sleep disturbance, dizziness or nausea, palpitations, tinnitus or ear pressure, and skin sensations such as burning, tingling or flushing, most often of the face. WHO notes that the collection of symptoms is not part of any recognised syndrome and that its prevalence estimates vary widely between surveys and countries. Because every one of these symptoms has many common causes, both WHO and ANSES recommend that they be investigated clinically in their own right rather than attributed to exposure in advance — which is medical advice this site records and does not substitute for.

## Related records

- [WHO position on electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS)](https://emfbase.com/studies/who-electromagnetic-hypersensitivity): 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.
- [ANSES 2018 — collective expert review of electromagnetic hypersensitivity](https://emfbase.com/studies/anses-2018-electromagnetic-hypersensitivity): France's health agency reviewed the literature plus hearings with clinicians, researchers and affected people: no solid experimental evidence of a causal link, and an explicit recommendation that the suffering be treated as real and clinically managed.
- [EHS (electromagnetic hypersensitivity)](https://emfbase.com/glossary/ehs): 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.
- [Is EMF sensitivity (EHS) real?](https://emfbase.com/questions/is-emf-sensitivity-real): Symptoms are recognised as genuine; blinded studies have not linked them to field exposure. WHO recommends evaluating the symptoms clinically.

## 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
- `anses-2018-ehs` Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail (ANSES), France (2018). *Avis et rapport d'expertise collective — Hypersensibilité électromagnétique ou intolérance environnementale idiopathique attribuée aux champs électromagnétiques (mars 2018)*. https://www.anses.fr/fr/system/files/AP2011SA0150Ra.pdf — government, 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.