Dress to protect
By Rachel Green from unmappedmag.com
Leaflet | OSM
It
might surprise you to learn about the popularity of anti-radiation
maternity dresses in China: I had seen a few of these rather
unusual-looking dresses on the streets of Shanghai, but never thought
for a second that they might have hidden properties, or even that they
were linked to pregnancy.
I
finally plucked up the courage to ask about the dresses while waiting
for an elevator one day. After explaining that it was intended to shield
her unborn child from the effects of radiation, the woman wearing the
dress in question was delighted at the chance to give me a
demonstration, and in order to prove its effectiveness, she stuck her
mobile phone inside the clothing, and with some difficulty managed to
show me that it was no longer receiving a signal.
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Once
in the elevator, I found myself wondering why had I never heard of
anti-radiation maternity clothes before. On one hand I was sceptical,
imagining some businessman keen to exploit the belief that
electromagnetic radiation could be harmful to unborn children - a
popular position in China, as I would later learn. But the conversation
had also led me to wonder if perhaps Westerners were too complacent
about such things: perhaps the Chinese were right, and we should be
taking steps to protect our pregnant women from the dangers of the
modern world.
Later
that day, when I reported my encounter to a group of female Chinese and
expats friends over dinner, I had no idea I was starting a debate among
the five of us that would involve six different opinions.
At
first, I was comforted to discover that the other foreigner at the
table had never heard of anti-radiation clothing either. My Chinese
friends, however, explained to us how the anti-electromagnetic radiation
maternity wear industry had thrived in China since the mid-nineties:
apparently, protective jumpers, dresses and blankets were now a
must-have for a pregnant woman. The real debate started when we got to
talking about the scientific evidence of their effectiveness, or rather
the lack of it.
For
a long time, no one in China had ever really questioned the
effectiveness of anti-radiation maternity clothes; it was simply taken
for granted and anchored in public opinion. Controversy arose two years
ago when a popular news programme on the state-owned China Central
Television (CCTV) network presented the results of its investigation
into the anti-radiation clothing industry.
The
news programme had reported that silver-ion maternity clothing proved
effective at blocking 90 percent of electromagnetic waves coming from in
front of the wearer. These findings were in contrast to the claims of
manufacturers, who regularly stated that their best products blocked
99.99 percent of everyday radiation coming from computers, televisions,
mobile phones, microwaves, and many other modern electronic devices.
More
controversially, the news programme also claimed that while such
clothes were able to block most frontal electromagnetic waves, they
actually served to magnify the intensity of the waves hitting parts of
the body not covered by the clothing. Experiments conducted by the
Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by scientist Chen Feng, found that the
clothing actually increased exposure by trapping radiation inside, much
like a greenhouse.
“Experimental
results show that under real life circumstances ... the anti-radiation
clothing intensifies the radiation. … When the electromagnetic waves get
inside the garment from other directions, there are no outlets for them
to be dispersed. You are actually exposed to a higher level of
radiation influence.”
According
to my friends, this news caused panic among consumers, who felt cheated
and worried for their safety and health of their babies. Some people
saw the scandal as simply adding to China’s poor record for health
problems; another scandal to add on top of many others. However, it is
easy to see why people were angry: this particular case dealt with the
safety of both pregnant mothers and unborn children.
Following
the programme and its revelations, much public anger was directed at
the Chinese government for providing so little information on
anti-radiation clothing and its benefits or dangers. In the meantime,
the Shanghai Electromagnetic Radiation Prevention Association (the trade
association representing the anti-radiation wear industry, obviously),
issued a statement regarding the CCTV investigation. Predictably, it
challenged the report and defended the garments, calling them “valid for
electromagnetic shielding”, and emphasizing that “consumers who wear
anti-electromagnetic radiation clothes have no reason for panic or
fear.”
Sitting
at the dinner table, a number of thoughts struck me as I learned the
full story behind these dresses. Generally, when CCTV presents stories
such as these, people pay attention: the station carries a lot of weight
in China. But I had seen many women continuing to wear these garments
over the last few months, despite the report.
As
my Chinese friends pointed out, both the CCTV programme and the
manufacturers claimed to be in the right. Who should people believe?
Opinions differed. Where there was consensus was over the fact that the
government should give guidance to the public on the matter: my friends
blamed the whole problem on the Health Ministry for neglecting its duty
to its citizens. I realized how widely questioned the value of official
information on health issues was. One of the key points that led the
debate to become so controversial is the industry's out-of-date
standards on electromagnetic radiation prevention, which date back to
1998, when the electrical appliances landscape was quite different from
today.
Let’s
have a look back at the chronology of events. In 2010, the China
Consumers’ Association published a warning about daily appliances’
emissions. Then in the first half of 2011, radiation fears peaked
following the tragic events in Fukushima reactor in Japan. At the end of
2011, soon after the CCTV investigation aired, sales of the maternity
aprons were affected and plummeted. They froze for a couple of months,
and although for a while it seemed that the days of anti-radiation
aprons were numbered, the trend still continues today and it has grown
into a lucrative fashion business - with prices for the dresses ranging
from approximately $60 to $300. The industry was once based almost
solely on one product – the apron dress. Nowadays, a variety of other
options are available, including pants, shirts, and underwear.
Since
that night, I have looked for other opinions on the matter. He Lan, a
columnist at the Southern Metropolis Daily, had a more skeptical view on
government regulation: his view was that it might be better to improve
the alarming environmental conditions that made the Chinese people feel
constant panic about radiation in the first place, than to complain
about the clothing that claims to protect people from it. He then asked
why men aren’t already wearing anti-radiation underpants. His answer to
his own question was that profit is directly proportional to scale.
Pregnant women will wear anti-radiation clothing for nine months. When
will men wear some and for how long?”
I don’t know for you, but his question got me thinking for a while.
Dinner
was long finished when I asked my Chinese friends if they would wear
such clothes themselves when pregnant. Without delay, one replied “of
course!”, and when the four of us looked at her for a more detailed
explanation, she simply added “just in case”. She refused to believe
that the garment could be harmful, and only reckoned it might be less
effective than claimed. Despite the warnings, she would not take the
risk of not wearing it. I drew a mental parallel with the common Western
superstition that walking under a ladder brings bad luck: I don’t
consider myself superstitious, but if I had the choice, I would rather
walk around the ladder than walk under it, “just in case”.
Another
friend also answered my question in the positive, but her reasons were
different. Chinese families believe that radiation emitted from
electronic appliances cause birth defects and have negative effects on
pregnant women. She said she couldn’t really discard the aprons, despite
being herself aware of their potential ineffectiveness and harmfulness,
as a result of pressure from family and peers, and especially in a
working environment.
My
third Chinese friend at first agreed with this position, but then
became hesitant, and finally said she would not wear the anti-radiation
clothing. She would definitely encounter social and family pressure as
well, she said, but she believed that thanks to the CCTV programme,
choosing to not wear the clothing was becoming increasingly accepted.
She admitted that the turning point for her was the realization that
pregnant women in the West don’t wear the clothing. China often measures
itself against the West to judge its own progress, and the fact that
foreign women have never heard of anti-radiation clothing definitely
changed opinions in this small sample group.
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Now
let’s be honest: concern about the ever-increasing number of wi-fi and
cellular signals is not limited to China; some people in the West are
blaming ‘electromagnetic hypersensitivity’ for nausea, migraine or
depression, among others. However, according to the World Health
Organization: “to date, scientific evidence does not support a link
between these symptoms and exposure to electromagnetic fields.”
Each
year, around fifteen million babies are born in China, and the
occurrence of birth defects is growing at an alarming rate. According to
the China Maternal and Infant Health Development Report, 149 of every
10,000 births were affected in 2010, compared to 88 in 1996. The
increase coincides with the growing availability and affordability of
electrical appliances, and this is how radiation fears are nourished.
But it also coincides with booming industrial output, car ownership, and
changes in dietary habits. It is impossible to look at such results and
imply causation, rather than mere correlation.
There
is a Chinese proverb that says, “Teachers open the door, you enter by
yourself”. Back at home that night, I thought about the earlier
conversation and wondered what I would do. Pushing the logic to the
extreme, I came to the conclusion that one effective solution would be
to wear a suit that completely covers the body. Not sure I would go for
it. I glimpsed at the glowing numbers on my microwave, and thought that
if I were to become pregnant in Shanghai, I would surely not wear the
belly armour. Rather, I would be much more worried about air pollution,
solar radiation, and food safety. Still, before going to bed, I switched
off my Internet router for the night, just in case.
Mathilde Paquet
is a silent observer with a loud laugh. She lives in Shanghai, China,
where she waltzes with a new culture, and finds herself passionate about
Tai Chi, while completely failing at using chopsticks.
Photos courtesy of Amazon.com.
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