BAFTA-nominated documentary Electric Malady tells the story of a man who has spent more than a decade reluctantly retreating from modern life in Sweden. Filmmaker Marie Liden tells Sky News why she wanted to make the film - and why the subject is such a 'toxic' issue.
Shrouded in a thick, white sheet, William looks like a tall child wearing a ghost costume. He lives like a hermit, isolated in a remote cottage in Sweden, and speaks of the pain that prevents him leading a normal life:"It feels like having your head caught in a vice."
Many experts say it is psychosomatic. The World Health Organisation states that EHS is not a medical diagnosis but acknowledges symptoms are real and that it can be"a disabling problem for the affected individual".Electric Malady was made by Marie Liden, who was nominated in the outstanding debut category at this year's BAFTAs for the project. She was inspired to tell William's story as her mother experienced symptoms for several years.
Like William, Liden's mother believed her EHS started after a mercury filling in her teeth became loose."She had 19," Liden says."It was a long process because every time she took one out, it would get worse." "You have a spectrum of less severe cases, but nonetheless very disruptive to life, where they can no longer work, they can no longer live in a normal residential area," she says.
In 2007, the BBC upheld complaints against an edition of its current affairs programme Panorama, titled Wi-Fi: A Warning Signal, after two viewers said it exaggerated the evidence for concern about the potential health hazards.Kenneth Foster, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, who has spent decades studying the impact of radiation, says symptoms of electrosensitivity are real, but no well-controlled studies have shown they are linked to actual exposure.
Studies have shown awareness of exposure influences complaints, he says."So there is most certainly a psychosomatic component in the whole issue. But whether that is the explanation forthe problems that people experience, that is not clear. You cannot exclude the possibility that there are people who really are electro-hypersensitive."One theory is that the condition is comparable to allergies to peanuts, penicillin, or insect stings, for example.
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