Advocates urge Joint Committee to add electromagnetic sensitivity to state disease registry bill

Testimony at the Joint Committee on Public Health on H.2413 centered on whether the Commonwealth should add electromagnetic sensitivity (also called EHS, EMS or microwave illness) to the state’s Maven illness registry. Proponents said adding the condition would allow officials to track cases and direct medical education and public outreach.

Cecilia Doucette, director of Massachusetts for Safe Technology and the nonprofit Safer Screen Time, told the committee that “this device was tested at a distance from the body…so if you’re holding it with the antennas radiating, you are exceeding the Federal Communications Commission’s limits for public radiation exposure,” and urged inclusion of electromagnetic radiation syndrome in Maven so the state can “gather decision making data to protect all of us, and especially our children.”

Why it…