A French woman has won a legal battle for disability payments after she said that her electro-sensitivity to radiation from mobile phones and wi-fi networks had made her incapable of working.
Marine Richards, 39, says the ruling by a Toulouse court is a breakthrough for other people who are electro-sensitive. Her lawyer, Alice Terrasse, described it as a legal precedent for thousands of people, even though electro-sensitivity is not yet recognised as a medical condition.
Richards, who was a radio documentary producer until her symptoms forced her to live as a recluse in a renovated barn without electricity, has been awarded a disability allowance of around 800 euros a month for three years.
The court accepted that her symptoms prevented her from working, but fell short of recognising her electro-sensitivity as a disease.
Electro-sensitivity symptoms include headaches, sleep problems, chronic fatigue, nausea and palpitations. Sufferers say they are caused by electro-magnetic radiation from mobile phones, wi-fi networks, cordless phones and tablets.
The World Health Organization does classify electro-sensitivity as a health problem, but doesn’t confirm that it is caused by exposure to electro-magnetic radiation. Health authorities in Sweden and Germany have classified it as an occupational disease.
(Source: Agence France-Presse, August 27, 2015)
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