Chemicals — The forgotten pieces of the EHS puzzle
by Gunni Nordstrm
A study of people with
electrical hypersensitivity shows elevated levels of brominated
flame-retardants in their blood, compared to a control group.
Keywords: Electrical hypersensitivity, electromagnetic hypersensitivity,
EHS, cause of, chemicals, environmental toxin,
brominated flame-retardants, PCB, PBDE, BDE, chlordane
The first, and so far
only, study of chemicals in the blood of people with electrical
hypersensitivity (EHS) was published in 2008. The results were published in the scientific journal Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, by
professor Lennart Hardell and colleagues at
rebro
University, Sweden.
ItÕs a small, but
important, pilot study, which found increased levels of chemicals in the blood
of people who had been sick with EHS for an average of eleven years.
Since the research on EHS has been dominated by the radiation issues,
we can only speculate what the blood levels were in those people who got sick
already in the late 1970s. It was
not common to have computers at home in those days and researchers would have
had much easier access to unexposed control groups. The first EHS epidemic among office personnel had been much
simpler to investigate than what is possible today. What we know is that the amount of brominated
flame-retardants in office electronics was dramatically increasing around that
time.
Some technical people,
such as Clas Tegenfeldt and Martin Andersson, were active in the debate already
in the 1980s and kept some of the old computer terminals for future
documentation. But, only a group
of chemists at the Institute for Working Life (Arbetslivsinstitutet) seemed
interested in finding out what chemicals were in the electronic equipment. They found that computer equipment
offgassed organic phosphates of a kind that can cause allergies.
The Institute for Working
Life was closed and the chemists moved to the University of Stockholm. There they never received any support
when they applied for grants to continue their studies of the chemicals in
electronics and their possible health effects in office workers.
The only study of its kind
One might say that it was twenty years too late that the Hardell group examined the blood from people who are electrohypersensitive, but the study is unique and worth more interest than it has received.
The
rebro study only
includes 13 persons with Ōself-reported electromagnetic hypersensitivityĶ and
21 controls. There were originally
20 people with EHS in the study, but seven were omitted for various reasons
— one due to non-Hodgkins lymphoma cancer.
The study found that the
EHS group had significantly higher levels of the flame-retardant BDE 47 in
their blood. BDE 47 is a part of
the PBDE (polybromine difenyle) group of brominated flame-retardants, which are
commonly used in electronics, such as computer equipment.
It is noteworthy that BDE 47 was rapidly increasing in breast milk during the 1980s. We know that there were many office workers at that time — and most of them were young women in their childbearing years — who started working with the new technology. They were thus exposed to various long-lived hormone-disrupting chemicals, which today are a worldwide concern.
Women who were nursing their babies were relieved of some of their chemical burden through their breast milk, but some complained about acute symptoms which various experts explained away as just being psychological. One example was the carbonless copy paper, which was used even before the computer revolution. Carbonless copy paper contained PCB, which is chemically similar to PBDE.
The
rebro study found
that the EHS group had higher levels of PCB 153 in their blood than the control
group.
The BDE 47 content in
breast milk leveled off by the end of the 1980s due to the chemical industry
voluntarily phasing the chemical out.
But other PBDE variants increased instead. There was at this time a lively debate in England and the
United States about the increasing miscarriages and other unusual health
problems among women in the electronics industry. This debate did not take place in Sweden.
Today, womenÕs breast
milk still has much higher levels of environmental toxins than any other kind
of food.
Follow-up study needed
The body mass index was recorded for all the persons in the
rebro study, since the chemicals tested for
are all stored in the body fat.
All the test subjects were also asked about the types of food they ate,
such as how much fish they consumed.
The EHS group was also asked about how their
illness started. Most had become
sick using the old CRT type of computer screens and/or fluorescent lights. People in the group have had EHS for
anywhere from one to nineteen years, with an average of eleven years since the
onset.
The study was
double-blinded, which means the researchers analyzing the blood samples didnÕt
know which group they came from.
The Swedish EHS patient organization, FEB, contributed to the cost of
the research with a modest sum.
Lennart Hardell is the first to regret that this study was not done earlier. It was only due to his personal interest that it was even done. He emphasizes that it is not possible to draw conclusions on whether chemicals cause EHS:
. . . but the study could certainly form a basis
for a larger and more thorough study.
It could be interesting to look at this group in a more controlled
setting and with a larger material, especially the possible interaction between
various environmental factors, such as chemicals and electromagnetic
fields. But we never got any
funding for further research.
One of the scientists behind the study is professor Bert van Bavel, who is laboratory director at the Forskningscentrum Mnniska Teknik Miljo (MTM) at rebro University. He primarily researches how humans absorb environmental toxins, such as PCB and dioxins. He says that in the future the tests for environmental toxins will be cheaper and faster. Hitherto it has been the cost of the lab tests that has made it difficult to go beyond the small pilot studies.
He emphasizes that there is a large need for research in this area:
Even
though the PBDE levels have started to stabilize, we still find BDE 47,
BDE 99 and BDE 153. It
is worrisome that we see relatively unknown brominated compounds replacing
PBDE, though they seem to have similar effects.
Professor ke Bergman of the University of Stockholm was in 1996 one of the first in the world to detect brominated flame-retardants in human blood. Many people with EHS contacted him to have their blood tested. Scientists thought that these compounds could disturb various hormonal systems in the body, such as blocking the thyroid hormone thyroxin.
One of the people who took these observations seriously was Britt-Marie Rosell, who for a time was the leader of a regional EHS organization (FEB-Vst). She was not satisfied just knowing she had these chemicals in her own blood. Twice she sent questionnaires to the 250 members of FEB-Vst. Many members responded back that they were aware of chemical exposures, which might have contributed to their becoming sick with EHS.
Britt-Marie Rosell published a report with her findings in 2000, which deserves to be better known.
About the author
This article was first published in the 2013/2 issue of Ljusglimten, a publication of the Swedish EHS organization FEB (www.feb.se). The article is brought here in an English version.
Gunni Nordstrm is a retired journalist. She has published the following books
in Swedish:
Sjuk av bildskrm, 1989, co-authored with Carl von Schele
Fltslaget, 1995, co-authored with Carl von Schele
Mrklggning,
2000.
Her most recent book, Mrklggning,
is available in two translated editions:
The Invisible Disease (English)
Menaces Invisibles (French)
Sources
Increased Concentrations of Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants in Subjects with Self-Reported Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity – A Pilot Study, Lennart Hardell, Michael Carlberg, Fredrik Sderqvist, Karin Hardell, Helen Bjrnfoth, Bert van Bavel, Gunilla Lindstrm, Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, 27:197-200, 2008. DOI: 10.1080/15368370802089053.
Kemikalierna – den saknade biten i pusslet? Britt-Marie Rosell, Mlnlycke, 2000.