(Filed: 24/01/2005)

Brian Stein cannot use a phone for longer than a few minutes. Modern cars and electrified trains are out of bounds and long distance flights are impossible. He cannot use a computer and colleagues have to switch theirs off in his presence.

Mr Stein, 55, chief executive of a £500 million Leicestershire-based chilled food manufacturer that employs 5,000 people, suffers from electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

He began to get severe pains in his ear while using his mobile phone about four years ago. Then he got headaches and pains when he was near computers and in his car. But neither his GP nor a specialist could find anything wrong with him.

Mr Stein, who lives in Nottinghamshire and has three grown-up children, said: "Medical people treat me as if I've just told them I'm visiting Earth from the moon."

He can no longer watch television, go to the cinema or listen to music that comes from devices plugged into the mains and has to switch the mains off at night. At work his office contains no electrical devices except a hands-free speaker phone and lighting.

Only flip charts and overhead projectors are used in his company's board meetings.

Mr Stein said of his condition: "I suspect that in 20 years we will have a problem that will make the issue of asbestos pale into insignificance."


Electricity sickness not a myth
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Informant: Sarah Benson