Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

EMI, DOA?

Brett Moss is gear & technology editor. I’m occasionally asked why I don’t have or use a cell phone. The real excuse(s) I hate talking on the phone. And I’m cheap.But that excuse won’t always look rational to a

Brett Moss is gear & technology editor.

I’m occasionally asked why I don’t have or use a cell phone.

The real excuse(s): I hate talking on the phone. And I’m cheap.

But that excuse won’t always look rational to a certain type of people, the kind who are mortified by my SpaghettiOs and pizza diet, the knowledge that I don’t listen to NPR or watch PBS and the fact that I’d prefer to vacation in Idaho rather than Paris. But they nod approvingly when I say that I don’t want my vital bodily fluids boiled away and my brain cooked by a cell phone.

Works every time.

However, those days might be numbered if this Zeropa thing is true.

Zeropa is a small “device” that looks like an oblong polished pebble from the bottom of a fish tank. According to the manufacturer it also reduces electromagnetic waves — ideally the stray ones. According to a press release (and some info on their website), it is “made from carefully selected metal oxides that are combined and sintered in special ovens to create a new ceramic material that absorbs specific electromagnetic waves …”

Am I the only one getting a Shakti Stones vibe off of this?

Still, excessive electromagnetic radiation enveloping the human body can’t ever be a good thing (excepting things like MRIs, I guess). So maybe dialing it down a bit in places isn’t such a roll-your-eyes idea. A press release said: “Laboratory tests in mobile phones show the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) reduction from 2.3 mW/g to 1.37 mW/g (lower than the 1.6 mW/g limit recommended by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission).” I gather that’s impressive.

Further info is available at the Zeropa website.

Zeropa has “stones” for cell phones and for laptop computers (don’t forget the insidious WiFi threat!). And they have them in all sorts of designs (though most of the designs look to be aimed at young teen girls).

Discuss amongst yourselves, I have to look for my pet rock.

Close