On the Shielding Effectiveness of Anti-Electromagnetic-Radiation Clothes
for Pregnant Females
Abstract
Fetal health during pregnancy is one of the most common concerns today.
Some of these concerns are due to electromagnetic (EM) radiations. Thus
various products are offered to protect the fetus from damage by
electromagnetic radiation. One of these products is the
Anti-Electromagnetic-Radiation pregnancy band - a shawl-type band which
the mother wraps around her belly to protect the fetus against EM
radiation. In this paper, the effects of these bands are studied to
investigate how effective they are in protecting against electromagnetic
waves. In order to show the effectiveness of such bands, different
scenarios of using them are considered. By simulating the mother’s
belly, it is shown that in some cases, it can have even opposite effects
and increase the level of electromagnetic waves. To better illustrate
the concept, an exemplary phantom of the mother’s belly is made, and
measurements are performed on it. Simulations show that the total
average field of all the scenarios in the ideal case where the shielding
has no seams, at three main frequencies (0.9, 1.8, and 2.4 GHz), does
not decrease more than 30 percent after using these bands, and the
maximum electric field increases in more than 90 percent of the
considered situations after using the band.