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Kripa Raman

Does a `safe' mobile in the market today mean that earlier phones were unsafe?

IS the use of mobile phones unsafe for one's health? Mobile manufacturers have vociferously protested that the radiation levels from their hand instruments are too insignificant to cause major harm.

But if one manufacturer enters the market with `harmless radiation' handsets as his unique selling proposition, does this not suggest other phones do emit harmful radiation?

Or is this merely a powerful selling proposition targeted at the health-obsessed when radiation from regular cellular phones could actually not be unsafe as their manufacturers claim?

It came as a surprise when G-Hanz, a German company selling `harmless radiation' phones had the recent worldwide launch of their phones out of India.

U.K. Ghosh, CEO and Board member of G-Hanz, insisted that this was because India was the fastest growing mobile market in the world. In fact, although the company was a German one, the subsequent launches would happen in China, Dubai, the UK, and Germany, in that order, he said.

It is not surprising that the `safe' phone is being manufactured by a consumer electronics company that has never been in the mobile handset space, said a large distributor of mobile phones in India. Should one of the existing vendors come out with a `safe' phone, it would then clearly suggest that they are admitting their previous products in the market are not very safe, he said.

Agrees J.P. Folsgaard Bak, Chairman & Co-founder of EMX Corporation, a US company that owns the EMX Bio Chip Technology that neutralises radiation, and is providing the technology to G Hanz now.

Those manufacturers who have a legacy will find it difficult to suddenly introduce a safe phone in the market, he says.

According to him, this technology does not suppress radiation without which a phone will not work. It changes the regular pattern of the electromagnetic field generated by mobile phones into an irregular pattern of radiation that will not harm living cells.

And, according to Ulla Bak, president of EMX Corporation, there are 29 published studies across the world establishing the fact.

In fact, such a product is easier launched first in a country like India, said the earlier-mentioned distributor of mobile phones.

In the West, it could trigger a wave of angry doubts about what other manufacturers have been doing so far, and has the potential to create quite a disturbance in the market and among consumers.

Already, according to Ulla Bak, one will find warnings on cell-phone manuals in the UK and the US. In Great Britain, warnings have been issued that children should not use cell phones.

So much for the service providers' plans for special services for children! Some health-conscious stores in Europe have also thrown out `baby phones' from their shelves.

G-Hanz says it plans to extend this technology to several other products ranging from PDAs (personal digital assistants) to even cordless phones and the like.

As consumers demand less risky services and products, there will be more and more opportunities for new technology companies to introduce `safe' products.

kripram@thehindu.co.in

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