Pants evidence is lacking.

[Chris_Peters]

I spotted a product called "Wireless Armour" advertised online that claimed "we are exposing ourselves to unprecedented levels of electromagnetic radiation and this is showing with our declining sperm counts and increasing cases of cancer". This product - underpants with a "mesh of pure silver" incorporated into the material - claimed to be able to "block at least 99.9% of the harmful radiation".

The product seems to have been endorsed by none other than Richard Branson who put it at number 9 on his "top 10 back-of-the-envelope start-up ideas" for 2014. To be fair, Branson called the product 'intriguing' and didn't comment on whether it was evidence-based.

I contacted the company to ask for evidence behind claims that electromagnetic radiation was dangerous and whether this product has been scientifically proven to be effective at blocking this radiation.

Not having received a reply from the company I contacted Professor Geraldine Thomas at the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery & Cancer at Imperial College. She told me:

"I don't see any need for this sort of protection as as far as I know there is no evidence that exposure to electromagnetic radiation (presumably from laptop computers or mobile phones in pockets as these would at least be in close proximity to the target area) has any effect on sperm count. Being as we are bombarded with electromagnetic radiation from natural sources throughout life, I doubt that the small amount that we add to it with our gadgets would make any difference. Sounds like a good way of selling something unnecessary to the gullible!"

It also looks like the Advertising Standards Authority agreed as this week it ruled that there was insufficient evidence to back up the claim that the product could protect the genitals from electromagnetic radiation or that there was a link between electromagnetic radiation and infertility.

Maybe the evidence was supplied on the back of an envelope...

[JossS]

This goes to show that nothing is ever new. I was asked to make a commercial for a very similar product about 30 years ago (long before the potential problems of Laptops and so on). I refused on the basis that I wouldn't be able to stop laughing long enough. The ITCA (back then responsible for clearing ads) likewise said that they were unlikely to pass a script for such a product.

[Chris_Peters Sense About Science in reply to JossS]

If only Richard Branson was so enlightened...

[Penel]

I guess they would go well with a tin foil hat...

[Hidden]

It still managed to make it into the Daily Mirror: mirror.co.uk/news/technolog...

[Morphix]

I have a lot of interest in EMF and radiation, possible effects on human health. I looked into it a bit with some research and the conclusions I came up with is that most authorities say EMF is harmless to human

health, despite concerns over 'EMF smog' as they now call it, with so much of it around us...I think many of these products which claim to protect from EMF are just playing on fears and concerns many people have, as we've been given mixed messages over the years.

Interestingly, what I did find out while researching EMF was that the rarer low-level EMF radiation (naturally occurring from lightning and from space from giant pulsar stars, and also man-made - the US used to operate a low-level EMF communications base to communicate with submarines until it closed down..a federal judge even blocked the building of it initially on health grounds!) is linked to health problems and even cancer, but scientists are more interested in the effects on the environment than on people!

Also, another possible cause of EMF cancer-causing radiation which is low-level and all around us is from electricity and the national grid! Scientists say more studies need to be done on this.