At 42, Meena (first name changed on request) has zero hearing sensation in her right ear. Shockingly, or not, the cause has been put down to exposure due to excessive radiation and heat emitted from her cellphone.
These chips claim to harmonise or alter the nature of the electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation emitted by a device to make it more tolerable to the human body.(Ravi Jadhav/Illustration)
The Delhi-based journalist discovered the damage only 18 months ago, when she first visited an ENT for what she thought were persistent air blocks in her right ear. It was too late to undo the damage, the doctor said. And it is unlikely that her hearing in that ear will improve. But rather than brood, Meena immediately started looking for ways to protect her left ear, afraid that long work calls would end up damaging it too.
That’s when her ENT first advised her to use ‘anti-radiation mobile chips’.
Today, besides Meena, her husband Srinivasan and their 18-year-old daughter Padmashree, also use these chips, which Srinivasan bought online.
“Being a journalist, Meena uses her cellphone for a long time every day. Hence, I thought of buying a chip that claims to reduce the heat and radiation emitted from the phone,” he says.
While the complete benefits of such chips are yet to be realised — for now, as awareness about problems caused by overuse of cellphones grows, the number of desi companies providing such ‘respite chips’ is growing as well.
Currently, a handful of brands produce such chips, with some having been on the market for up to five years. Cogent Anti Radiation Chip, Bioenergy Card and Radblock, to name a few, are all chips that are easily available on e-commerce websites like eBay, Amazon and Flipkart, with prices starting at Rs 150.
But how do these chips work, and are they really effective?
Doctors have their doubts.
Dr Manohar Shaan, an ENT specialist at Mumbai’s Nanavati hospital, for instance, says that he consults about three patients a month who complain of pain in the ear due to cellphone usage, but he hasn’t really been able to establish a correlation between the two.
“The link between radiation from excessive cellphone use and hearing loss has not been established. Many of these are actually cases of blocked rather than damaged ears,” says Dr Shaan. “The only problem I can foresee is when someone is using their headphones on high volume. That could potentially lead to impaired hearing.”
