Shielding you from your money

There are companies marketing anti-radiation phone cases, shields and even special anti-radiation batteries. Some of the radiation scare stories can be traced back to their publicity efforts.

It is fair to say that these devices are effective, in that they make a profit for the people making and selling them.

Whether they do any good for the customers is another matter. It is possible that they stop the users worrying, but it is hard to see any other benefits.

Shielding you from the truth

There is a widespread concern that mobile phones are a sort of health hazard. In the total absence of any evidence of harm despite decades of mobile phone use, you have to wonder where this concern comes from. One likely source is the alarmist publicity that phone shield makers have published, in an effort to drive sales.

How do they work?

Generally, they wrap the handset (and sometimes the antenna) in some sort of conductive shielding. This has the effect of a partial Faraday cage, which prevents signal going in or out of the mobile.

It doesn't take a genius to realise that the mobile phone needs to have signal going in and out to work, and if you put it in a case to restrict the signal, the handset will simply turn up the power to compensate.

Net result: your battery runs down faster, and you are more likely to suffer from dropped calls. Needless to say, the radio waves reaching you will not be reduced.

Some anti-radiation cases claim to be reflectors that guide the signal away from the user. This has some possible merit, but radio transmission at these frequencies is a very precise science, and the reflector shields on the market are unlikely to be as effective at this as good handset design in the first place.

Handset designers have a vested interest in making the signal reach the base station, not the user's head. If there was a quick fix here, they'd have used it!

Anti-radiation batteries

It is hard to see how an anti-radiation battery could even claim to be effective. Batteries simply provide power to the phone: they have no other part to play (apart from vibrating on some handset models)

What does work?

One more effective way to reduce the radio signals reaching your head is to use a handsfree unit, whether a full car kit, or a simple personal handsfree earpiece. These allow you to move the antenna well away from your head. If you are concerned about this, be aware that the fleshy parts, glands and organs within your body are more likely to suffer than your head, which is protected by a bone casing.

Note that Which? found personal handsfree units that increased the RF to your head, but judging by Which?'s recent record in such matters, you may doubt the accuracy of this finding. Their tests used straight wires hanging down, and as any PHF user will testify, the difficulty with these devices is that the cables always seem to tangle up, making it hard to use them, but preventing RF signals passing up them easily.

Another way to reduce the signal reaching you is to make calls in an area of good coverage. If the signal is good, the phone turns down the power dramatically.

The scientific research so far seems to suggest that the best course of action is not to worry about it!

See also [ Microwave Radiation ] : [ Safe To Use? ] : [ Base Station Danger ]

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