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School Uniform To Block Cell Phone Emissions

Posted by samzenpus on from the luddite-high dept.

Foehg writes "ForeignPolicy.com reports, 'A Belarusian textile company has developed a special school uniform that protects kids from electromagnetic radiation emanating from their cellphones. The uniform features a dedicated pocket that can store the phone and make it safe for those who wear it.'" Now someone has to create an oven mitt that can protect you from the harmful radiation given off by your microwave oven.

10 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. I think this could be potentially good. by BlueKitties · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If it also blocks transmission, then students can keep their cell phone on them without worrying about disrupting class or losing their phone.

    --
    "Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad." [Ecclesiastes 7:3]
    1. Re:I think this could be potentially good. by eln · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If it blocks transmission, none of the students will use it for its intended purpose, because they want to text their friends in the middle of the day regardless of the rules. They'll just keep their cell phones in another pocket.

  2. Great! by Vrallis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is great news for all of those students going to schools that permit them to carry cell phones.

    Wait, what?

    1. Re:Great! by KuNgFo0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The helicopter moms would probably throw a fit if they couldn't check up on their precious snowflakes.

    2. Re:Great! by ae1294 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No it's not. It's never about protecting the children.

    3. Re:Great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The most effective way of reducing electromagnetic radiation from cellphones is to turn them off. The second most effective method is to install a femtocell in each classroom, allowing the cellphones to reduce the signal strength to almost nothing. A braindead method is to add lots of material which blocks cellphone transmissions, causing all cellphones to increase the output signal strength.

  3. WTH? by Dr_Ken · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you don't want the students to make/receive calls or text msgs why let 'em have phones with them at all? Wouldn't it be cheaper just order them left in their lockers? Paying for uniforms to block them seems overly complicated and expensive for the very little good it does. This seems more like a scam on the part of a company that wants to feed at the trough of the education bureaucracy. Or so it seems to me.

    --
    "If you want to know what happens to you when you die, go look at some dead stuff."
  4. Cellphones are officially safe though by mtthwbrnd · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But cellphones are perfectly safe according to official doctrine. What is the problem here? Why do we need protecting from something that is officially safe. If they are unsafe then they should be banned.

  5. WOW by OrangeMonkey11 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is just another pointless protect our Children BS, why not just suggest every parents should bubble wrap their children before they leave the house

  6. Re:I don't know why that sounds so odd to you by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So a lot of kids at elementary school have cellphones. At that point question is "Should they be allowed in school or not" and thus "Is there any benefit from that?". The answer is, yes there is.

    Should they be allowed in schools is one question, should they be allowed in class is another. The answer to the first one is yes, because it's obviously beneficial for parents and children to be able to communicate. The answer to the latter is no, because in general they serve no educational purpose, and a child who needs to call their parent can either wait until after class or ask the teacher's permission.

    I think a lot of people automatically think "in class" when they hear "in school".

    It was never a problem of any sort, not for teachers and not for students.

    Sadly it's quite a problem over here, largely because of the ongoing war between students and their parents trying to strip all authority from school staff, and school staff trying to acquire absolute power in blanket fashion so they can claim to be fair and always thinking of the children.

    E.g. if a student has a phone in class, and won't stop using it and disrupting class, and won't voluntarily hand it over to the teacher, the teacher has very few options as to what to do that won't get them in deep shit with the parents. Ergo, they try to get a universal ban on having phones in school, or blocking the phones so they're useless, and thus never have to confront an individual student over it.

    It's kinda messed up.

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are