Many debates and disputes start between companies at some point of their existence. Those disputes are the result of the two (or even more) companies’ effort to become better than the other (or all the other) company/ies. Now, while some debates are around more normal topics and are solved quite quickly, others are centred around more interesting and definitely much more debatable subjects such as patents, technological discoveries, claim to innovations, or even (as you are about to read below) whether telecommunication devices are harmful for pregnant women due to the electromagnetic waves that they emit.
The company Qihoo 360 recently presented a device – which is actually an updated version of one of their already released products – that comes with 3 option: wall penetration, balance and “pregnancy”. As the company supports in its official website, the third setting reduces the radiation emitted from the router by 70%.
However, the Chinese technology colossal company Xiaomi, turned against Qihoo 360 and spoke about the second one using false information and resorting to scaremongering.
According to Xiaomi’s statements, the “pregnancy” setting is just a marketing strategy as the use of any Wi-Fi is totally safe and puts no one in danger.
There is a great competition between the two companies. In fact, Xiaomi recently released to the Chinese markets a new router that offers 6 terrabytes of capacity and connection at a surprisingly high speed but still, does not include the “pregnancy” setting.
Zhou Hongyi, the chief executive manager of Qihoo, stated during the presentation of the new router, that this device is mostly targeting people that have a radiation phobia (radiophobia). A Chinese newspaper that covered the event (South China Morning Post) also wrote that Xiaomi on its official Weibo account: “We firmly oppose, and feel ashamed of, those who create rumours and arouse instability for business purposes,”
Opinions seem to differ on this matter, concerning the negative health effects that can be caused by exposure to electromagnetic waves, like the ones that are emitted by a Wi-Fi device. However, it has been found by scientists that the low level of the waves that are emitted by telecommunication devices are not considerably dangerous for human health or even pregnant women.
Qihoo 360 responded to Xiaomi’s comment about scaremongering by telling the Post this was never its intention. It also conceded that the science surrounding the subject remains something of a grey area.
More specifically, Qihoo said: “We aren’t scientists. We haven’t done many experiments to prove how much damage the radiation from Wi-fi can cause. We leave the right of choice to our customers.”
To clarify the health threat, the World Health Organisation started building a database on the subject in 1996 called The International Electromagnetic Fields Project.
“Based on a recent in-depth review of the scientific literature, the WHO concluded that current evidence does not confirm the existence of any health consequences from exposure to low-level electromagnetic fields,” it stated.
