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LONDON - Mobile phone manufacturers have opened talks with a small UK technology company to develop the world's safest mobile phone that reduces the amount of electromagnetic radiation that is emitted by digital devices.
The radiation emitted by digital devices such as wifi-enabled laptops has been labelled the
"digital equivalent of passive smoking" by some observers.
Although normal usage of mobile phones and laptops is unlikely to pose a significant risk to health, the mobile communications industry could come under increasing pressure to address the issue over the coming years due to increasingly health conscious consumers.
James Fintain Lawler, the head of the technology start-up Exradia, said the company has entered detailed talks with two major global mobile phone manufacturers to embed the company's "Wi-Guard" technology into handsets to reduce the potentially harmful effects of radiation emitted by handsets.
Exradia has also held talks with some laptop makers.
"Wireless is now woven into everything we do and ambient radiation is now in the air we breathe. Your biological system is being bombarded," he said.
He rejected the notion that he was scare-mongering to get his product off the ground, arguing that the World Health Organisation, the European Union and the UK government have all raised concerns about the issue.
"We don't sell on fear, uncertainty and doubt. We want to give people the choice to buy a safer phone," Mr Lawler said.
He argued that the human body combats man-made electromagnetic fields - the pulsing signal emitted by digital devices - but continued exposure to such radiation could affect the body's ability to heal.
The Wi-Guard technology works by randomising the field so it becomes more similar to naturally occurring electromagnetic fields that the body can deal with.
Mr Lawler said the amount of radiation emitted by man-made electromagnetic fields is one billion times higher than in 1950, due predominantly to the massive rise in the number of mobile phones and wireless laptops being used over the past decade.
He described the Wi-Guard as a "digital seatbelt to combat electronic pollution".
The technology was originally developed in the 1980s when the US Army became concerned about the effect radiation emitted by satellite phones could have on soldiers.
Mr Lawler said mobile providers such as Vodafone and Orange could start offering safer phones to appeal to ethical or health conscious consumers.
He said that one reseller in the UK has found that 50 per cent of consumers who were offered a new phone chose a safer phone that used Wi-Guard in the handset's battery.
Consumers can choose to source a replacement battery using the technology through Exradia's website, with 88 handset models covered.
People concerned with the effect of ambient radiation from wireless networks and digital devices have turned to a variety of bespoke technologies, including the Q-Link pendant and plug-in electromagnetic field protection units for the home.
Mr Lawler said the Wi-Guard system is the only technology that can neutralise man-made electromagnetic fields at source.
- INDEPENDENT