California Appellate Court Says WiFi Sickness Is a Disability
 

There was a win for our cause in the California Court of Appeals last Friday. The court said that electromagnetic hypersensitivity ("microwave illness") is a disability under California law. I highly recommend that anyone who wants to see how EHS can progress, or who is contemplating filing a suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act or state law read the court case. It's quite interesting! In a boldfaced subject heading, the court said, "Brown Adequately Pled a Physical Disability"!

A schoolteacher was made seriously ill by the installation of a new (undoubtedly amped up) WiFi system at her school, which caused numerous symptoms many of you are familiar with:  chronic pain, headaches, nausea, itching, burning sensations on her skin, ear issues, shortness of breath, inflammation, heart palpitations, respiratory complications, foggy headedness, and fatigue. The school district initially tried to accommodate the teacher by turning off the Wi-Fi in her classroom and an adjacent one. The teacher said that her symptoms persisted and asked for additional accommodations.

According to the school district, the RF levels in the school were safe. But that, of course, is according to FCC standards that say that the only unsafe exposure is a one-time, never repeated, half hour exposure that does not cause a 6-foot tall, 200-pound man's tissue to heat up. (Want to keep holding that phone up to your head?)

The teacher then sued the school district.  The lower court threw the case out. The teacher appealed, and the California Court of Appeals said that under California statute, she had a valid cause of action, meaning that EHS is covered under California law. So the case is yet to be decided, but is going forward.

Very importantly, the teacher adequately pled a cause of action for failure to provide reasonable accommodation for a disability. She had suggested, for example, that the walls be painted with paint that would stop the wifi coming from other classrooms.

  

Judge Says Claim Will Invite Other "Idiosyncratic" Lawsuits
WiFi is fast and convenient, and no one wants to go back, says judge

While Judge Wiley concurred on the decision to remand the case, he expressed the views of the majority of Americans. Sounding a warning note to the lower court, Wiley said:

“There is debate in the medical community over whether sensitivity to electromagnetic voltage is a physical disorder or a psychological one."

“I worry about giving any sort of green light to this unprecedented and unorthodox disability claim. Plaintiff’s counsel was most reluctant at oral argument to admit it, but it seems clear we are the first court in the United States of America—a nation of over 300 million people—to allow a claim that ‘Wi-Fi can make you sick.’”

“Nearly everyone wants the phenomenal convenience of the virtual world in your hand, everywhere you go, and the faster the better. All the potential defendants responding to this popular demand may take solemn note of news that, as of today, their Wi-Fi systems now may possibly invite costly litigation from members of the public who say that Wi-Fi made them sick. And potential plaintiffs and their counsel will have an interest too."

“The law worries about junk science in the courtroom. One concern is that a partisan expert witness can bamboozle a jury with a commanding bearing, an engaging manner, and a theory that lacks respectable scientific support.”

Sadly, not one bit of mainstream news reporting on this.  Read the full case here.