Is "Electro-Sensitivity" a Disability?
Businesses have to deal with all manner of disabilities in their employees in a way that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and similar state legislation such as the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. We've previously posted, for instance, on employees who claim to be allergic to perfume. Litigation over that issue has gone as far as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Now there's a hint of a "sensitivity" --- it's not clear whether doctors will call it an allergy --- to electrical and radio waves. For more information, here's a link to an electro-sensitivity advocacy group.
According to KOB.com, "a group in Santa Fe says the city is discriminating against them because they say that they're allergic to the wireless Internet signal. And now they want Wi-Fi banned from public buildings." There's no word yet from Santa Fe's attorney of a recommendation on how to handle the complaint, but a City Councilor had a point when he noted that the city is already saturated with wireless signals.
Now, perfume in the workplace is one thing, desirable to some but certainly not essential to conducting business. However, American business runs on electronic devices: computers, cell phones, Blackberries, and the like. They're everywhere. Business cannot function without them. Might a court be persuaded to rule that electro-sensitivity is a disability? Perhaps. Stranger things have happened. If so, how could a business accommodate the disabled worker? In most modern office settings there's no practical way to avoid exposure to electrical equipment and radio waves.
Asa result, it's unlikely that circumstances will allow a court to finesse the issue as the Third Circuit did with perfume sensitivity in Kaufman v. GMAC Mortgage. In that case the court assumed, but did not decide, that perfume sensitivity was a disability. It ruled against the plaintiff because it found that GMAC had reasonably accommodated the disability (if it was a disability). Because of the pervasiveness of electrical and radio waves, with electro-sensitivity an accommodation would be immensely difficult.
Of course, there's always the possibility of a legislative solution, but Congress has not demonstrated a willingness to scale back the scope of the ADA by amending legislation.
In short, we are not aware of any large-scale movement by electro-sensitives to push this issue in the courts, but it may be coming. Business advocacy groups may want to start thinking about how they will react if the issue comes to the fore.
I have not personally come across anyone who claims to be but this isn't the first time that I've seen claims that individuals are sensitive to the EM fields generated by electrical devices.
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cadeburton
http://www.shepelskylaw.com
Increasingly we are all being affected by the astronomical intensification of electromagnetic radiation (i.e. electrosmog) permeating our environments -- whether we realize it or not! 40 million Americans now take sleeping pills for insomnia! An estimated one in fifty children have Autism! An estimated one in eleven have ADHD! Alzheimer's is a growing epidemic even now among people in their forties! Brain tumors are now the leading cause of cancer death (surpassing leukemia in 2002) for children. One in forty adults are said to suffer from the symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome! Depression and Bipolar disorder are epidemic! Cancer is rampant! Numerous (WHO approved) studies already show that cancer clusters start developing in people living within 500 meters of a cell phone after five years. If you put a frog in hot water, it will jump out! If you put a frog in cold water and slowly heat the water you will cook the frog without it realizing it is being cooked! We are all slowly being cooked without realizing it. We cannot sense this invisible pollution with our five senses and really must consciously remove ourselves completely from it to realize we are indeed being affected by it! In Sweden, Electrosensitivity is considered a disability and the government provides for people who are more affected than the rest of the population! Recently, Canada has also enacted laws acknowledging the problem. There are short-term solutions -- there are ways that we can all mitigate the amount of EMR we are being exposed to in the home and office. There are Wired Alternatives to Wireless! There are filters for filtering the dirty electricity running through our walls! There are paints and materials which will shield our environments from the onslaught of illness-causing microwave and other forms of EM radiation. However, in the long-term, the only real solution is to take a serious look and give some serious thought as to the way this technology is seriously affecting our health and well-being and there must be actions taken to decrease all this truly unnecessary electropollution! In reality, the wireless revolution (i.e. the largest biological experiment ever undertaken) should have never have been allowed to happen and the world is being deceived on a massive scale by the wireless communications industry (in bed with the governments) regarding the dangers this technology is posing to our health and the health of our loves ones. The only way things will change is from the bottom up -- by grass-roots efforts! Read the following article -- THE CELL PHONE DISEASE QUAGMIRE - ARE WE BEING DECEIVED? -- in The American Trial Lawyer by Dr. George Carlo to find out how: http://www.mast-victims.org/index.php?content=news&action=view&type=newsitem&id=3522