The Red, White, and Green

With all the talk about cell phones and cancer, I’ve been constantly reminding myself to use a headset with my BlackBerry Curve, which was disturbingly ranked one of the worst phones (highest radiation risk) by Environmental Working Group.

Problem is, I don’t always remember to bring my headset with me wherever I go, so I’m left to: a) conduct a conversation using the Curve’s crappy speakerphone (my mom insists she can only hear every other word I say); b) cringe as I finally give up and hold the phone a couple inches from my ear; and c) try to get the other person off the line as fast as humanly possible.

The solution: An anti-radiation BlackBerry case from Pong Research (also available for the iPhone), which has been shown by FCC-certified laboratories to reduce exposure to cell phone radiation by 60 to 85 percent. Admittedly, the technical jargon on the website reads like pseudoscience, but rest assured that the gadget really works: After publishing an initially skeptical review last year, Wired magazine had to eat its words after taking a Pong case to a radiation lab and confirming that the company’s claims are indeed credible.

The debate rages on as to whether cell phones are actually harmful to one’s health, but the possibility has enough people worried that legislators in San Francisco just passed a law requiring retailers to label phones for radiation risk. I’m not taking any chances: I’ll be ordering my Pong case before the 50 percent discount offer ends on July 31.

–Jennifer Grayson

P.S. I am still BlackBerry-free, true to my Earth Day promise: I disconnected the email service, so I only use the device as a phone.

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