Raising awareness of radiation: Looking into EHS

Arlene Sanchez hasn’t left the house since 2021.

She says she has electromagnetic hypersensitivity, or EHS.

Formerly called microwave syndrome, New Mexicans may be familiar with the disorder as it’s portrayed in the New Mexico-based show “Better Call Saul.” One of the main characters isolates himself from electromagnetic fields for health reasons, and the show later insinuates his symptoms weren’t really linked to radiation.

It wasn’t a surprise to Sanchez and the others sitting in her lush home that people don’t take EHS seriously because of the show, as well as other media and medical perceptions. But she wants to raise awareness about the dangers of radiation through her own experience with EHS.

The World Health Organization reports that there is no scientific basis linking EHS symptoms to electromagnetic fields, or EMF, exposure, and the current radio frequency, RF, limit set by the Federal Communications Commission is protecting human health, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

‘You don’t choose this’

Four years ago, Sanchez was working remotely for Intel with multiple computer screens, a Wi-Fi router and a wireless printer in her home office.

Now, her house lacks any kind of wireless technology. An A-frame sidewalk sign blocks the long driveway leading to the house with a warning of no cell phones and no Bluetooth technology. A cooler beside the sign indicates where deliveries can get dropped off.

Sanchez said her symptoms started after COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2021. Using all of her technology at home and driving around in her hybrid vehicle, she said, she started getting brain fog and agitation, and her husband could tell something was wrong.

“I didn’t know what was happening to me,” she said.

Sanchez said she probably visited about half a dozen medical doctors, getting no answers, before going to see natural doctors for help. Early in 2021, Sanchez and Kevin Lorenzen, her husband, surmised she was having a reaction to any electromagnetic or radio frequency fields through their own research.

She self-diagnosed, and a natural doctor based in Santa Fe later provided the same EHS diagnosis.

Since then, Sanchez hasn’t left the house. She said her husband has gone on 10 vacations by himself.

“Everything is here. People come to me to see me. And we just had a grandbaby; couldn’t go to that,” she said. “I mean, it’s major stuff. You don’t choose this.”

Elizabeth Lammons-Marcilla’s son Henry killed himself at 31 years old in September 2022.

Lammons-Marcilla explained that Henry started out with mold poisoning, and it took multiple specialists to figure out what was going on. He eventually self-diagnosed with acute mold poisoning, which Lammons-Marcilla said leads to EHS.

“Everything just happened too late for him,” she said.

Henry first started having symptoms at 29 years old, Lammons-Marcia said, things like diet restrictions, weight loss and limited use of his hands.

She said she thought it was crazy at first, similar to what medical doctors would tell him. Lammons-Marcia said Henry saw up to 20 specialists trying to figure out what was going on.

“But we could see the physical manifestations, like no one would choose in their right mind — and he was in his right mind — something like this, so debilitating,” she said.

Lammons-Marcia said Henry was living in her guest house, but it became impossible because of the pain he was in. He later moved to a shed in Tijeras, she said.

Henry and Sanchez saw the same natural doctor based out of Santa Fe. Lammons-Marcia said Henry started taking binders to get the mold out of his system but was re-exposed by furniture from his parent’s guest house, which caused a downward spiral.

“It is complicated, and there’s not one pill that you can throw at it as treatment,” Lammons-Marcia said. “Everyone is unique and individual, and I think that’s also what makes treatment so difficult.”

Amped up

Sanchez and her husband Kevin Lorenzen have tried to design and rearrange their house to incorporate “safe zones” for Sanchez, where she can’t physically feel signals coming from outside. Wearing a radio frequency energy watch on her wrist, she checks it occasionally for signals.

But the arrangement isn’t foolproof, and Sanchez said she still often feels pain through signals or satellites flying overhead.

She described feeling “amped up” when exposed to radiation. She said EHS really affects her heart and brain, describing it as a pulsing, burning feeling.

“Have you ever had too much caffeine? You feel sort of jittery, sort of amped up. It’s kind of like I can’t relax,” she said. “That’s how I felt driving my (hybrid) car. That’s how I felt when I would use my tech too much.”

She has a protective setup in the trunk of her car in the garage. It’s a large box, and Sanchez said when her pulses are really bad, she lays in the box with a stainless steel bowl over her head and another over her heart.

Before the car setup, Sanchez formerly had a nearby sort of cave that was carved out of the side of a hill with a similar setup she would go to for protection. Her and her husband are actually planning next year to break ground on another house there because it’s a better location to block EMF signals.

The World Health Organization says the symptoms are real and can vary in severity.

“Whatever its cause, EHS can be a disabling problem for the affected individual. … EHS is not a medical diagnosis, nor is it clear that it represents a single medical problem,” WHO reports online.

Sanchez said everyone has toxins they’re exposed to that their bodies naturally flush out at night, but some people exposed to too many toxins can’t release all of them.

Lorenzen explained that not everyone has EHS, comparing it to how some people sunburn more easily than others — another form of radiation.

The FCC specifies that radiation does not mean radioactivity.

Regulations

Sanchez said she’s on disability through the Americans with Disabilities Act. The law requires reasonable accommodations for people with electromagnetic sensitivities, according to the U.S. Access Board. How courts interpret that policy may be a more and more pressing legal question in the future, according to the National Law Review.

The Federal Communications Commission hasn’t updated its guidelines around radioactivity coming off of cell phones in nearly 30 years.

The FCC notes online that its primary jurisdiction “does not lie in the health and safety area, and it must rely on other agencies and organizations for guidance in these matters.” The federal agency said research into possible biological effects of RF energy is ongoing.

Lorenzen said there really needs to be better safety guidelines and compliance, and there is data and peer-reviewed studies backing up the impacts.

“This is a dangerous technology that we’re using,” he said.

Sanchez and her husband said wealthy, big tech companies have a lot of control over these government entities regulating tech.

“It’s not that the data is lacking. It’s what’s happening to the data and how big tech is kept caboshing it or it’s just being silenced,” she said.

Sanchez said she thinks EHS will eventually turn into an epidemic.

“The truth is eventually going to come out. Doctors are eventually going to have to come to the realization they have to start treating us and diagnosing,” she said.

Lorenzen said though he doesn’t have EHS, he’s very careful about how he uses technology now. He brought up a microwave as an example, which he said is literally a radiation box. He said cell phones, WiFi, Bluetooth and 5G are all emitting radiation.

He and his wife said if people are aware of the issue and do small things, like not sleeping with phones right not to their heads or turning off the wifi at night, it can significantly help.

“People can do little things to make a big difference,” Sanchez said.

She and Lammons-Marcia said they really want to raise awareness about the dangers of radiation exposure. Lammons-Marcia had tears in her eyes as she thought of her son.

“Hopefully his death is not in vain,” she said.