September 12 2002
Brussels - United States jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co denied that it was
playing on consumer fears by launching a line of trousers fitted with
"anti-radiation" pockets for cellphones.
The trousers, with a lining which the makers say shields against radiation, are
designed by Dockers, a brand name of Levi Strauss - famous for its classic "501"
jeans.
Retailers were currently viewing the new line, called Icon S-Fit, with an eye to
sales from next spring, said a Levi's spokesperson.
Its forthcoming Dockers S-Fit men's trousers will include a mobile phone pocket
with a "radiation-reducing" lining. The Dockers S-Fit trousers are scheduled to
hit Europe's high streets in early 2003. There are no plans to launch them in
the US.
"We're not implying in any way that cellphones are dangerous," said Levi's
European communications manager Cedric Jungpeter.
The inner lining includes an integrated metal grid, which he
claimed had been proven by independent research institutes to "reduce the
emissions from mobile phones." Further details about the lining are not yet
available, except that it is 97 percent cotton, with the remaining 3 percent
being a substance called "MDF", which it is thought makes up the metal grid.
Levi's claims that this lining "might reduce" possible health
effects from mobile phone use -- even though scientists have not yet found firm
proof that mobile phone use is dangerous.
'No study has proved cellphones are harmful.
"Our intention is not to cash in on consumer fears but provide the consumers
with what they want," he said from Levi's European headquarters in Brussels.
The finished design was the fruit of extensive market research showing that the
fashion conscious were also health conscious, said Jungpeter.
"The debate is open. Although no study has proved cellphones are harmful, no
study has proved the contrary either," he added.
Worldwide studies into the possible dangers of cellphones produce often
conflicting conclusions.
A recent one carried out by Australian researchers over a three-year period
showed that radio emissions from cellphones did not trigger the growth of
tumours in mice, and therefore probably did not do so in humans either.
That research followed another Australian study on mice five years ago that
concluded cellular phones could foster tumour growth.
Swedish research published in August concluded that long-term users of first
generation cellphones faced an up to 80 percent greater risk of developing brain
tumours than non-users and the World Health Organisation said last year more
research was needed.
But a Danish study last year of 400 000 cellphones users showed no increased
cancer risk.
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