NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, May 10, 2001

While the widespread belief that cellular telephones can create cancer-causing radiation is still a controversial subject - recent studies reported in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association could find no connection between cell-phone radiation and brain cancer - manufacturers have jumped aboard the cancer scare bandwagon and produced shields designed to protect users from cell-phone radiation.

Devices called SafeTShield, Wave Shield, Cellularguard and Wave Scrambler, all touted to protect cell-phone users from radiation from their phones, are big sellers at such outlets as Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, Duane Reade and Ace Hardware, according to reporter Dirk Smillie, writing in Forbes Global.

Last month SV1, of Boca Raton, Fla., the maker of the SafeTShield, signed a deal with 7-Eleven to sell it at 5,200 stores. It can produce 3 million units a month, Smillie reports. Moreover, he adds that The Wave Shield has sold more than 100,000 units in Asia, and Cellularguard, in Tomkins Cove, N.Y., has moved 160,000 in 10 months. Most of its international sales come from Latin America and the United Kingdom. Users in Puerto Rico bought 8,000 Cellularguards in February.

Smillie insists that fears of cell-phone radiation causing cancer are groundless. In addition to the two studies mentioned above, Good Housekeeping Institute tested several of the shields and found they provided little benefit. The Federal Trade Commission and the attorney general of New York are also questioning the value of the devices, which Smillie reports come in many shapes and sizes from button-size discs that fit on the earpiece, or black-beaded thimbles that fit over the phone’s antenna.

And though the devices are tiny, the profit margins are huge. Scott Coloney, Cellularguard’s CEO, admits it cost him 80 cents to produce his shield that retails at $15.

How to Protect Yourself

But for those who are convinced there is a danger from cell-phone radiation, they can protect themselves without spending a penny on a shield. As NewsMax.com has reported, all you need is to use a cell phone equipped with nothing more sophisticated than an earpiece that will allow you to listen to calls without holding the antenna near your head.

That’s the advice of syndicated columnist Martin Schram, who has co-written the book "Cell Phones: Invistible Hazards in the Wireless Age" with epidemiolgist Dr. George Carlo. The authors are convinced that the hazards of cell-phone radiation are real, and they cite convincing evidence in support of their belief.

As for the costly shields, Smillie says that while many of their manufacturers claim their products can eliminate almost all cell-phone radiation, the fact is that if they did the cell phones wouldn’t work because their shields would squelch the phone’s radio signals.

See more articles on cell phones.

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