The Breaking Bad spin-off features a character who is afraid of mobile phone signals. As two scientists explain, it’s a psychological ailment – but you wouldn’t know that from browsing media reports
Better Call Saul, the long-awaited spin-off of Breaking Bad, has already thrown up some interesting questions: why is Saul chopping up cookie dough in a shopping mall? Will Mike Ehrmantraut ever let him out of the car park at the first time of asking? But perhaps most intriguing is the one raised by Saul’s brother Chuck: what is electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS)? Chuck (played by Spinal Tap’s Michael McKean) is a recluse on extended leave from his legal firm who lives without electricity and wraps himself in a shiny “space blanket” to ward off the effects of exposure to Saul’s mobile phone.
It’s an unusual condition, but Chuck is not alone. In the UK, around 4% of people report that they experience unpleasant symptoms due to exposure to electromagnetic fields given out by mobile phones, Wi-Fi routers, TVs and so on. In severe cases, it can ruin people’s lives, making them unable to work in computer-filled offices, enter shops with fluorescent lights or visit friends or family whose homes are filled with electronics. In the most extreme – and rare– cases, affected people withdraw from modern society almost entirely, living in isolated caravans or remote communities in “EMF-free zones”.
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