In the past few years, a new trend has been gaining popularity in China: pregnant women should wear radiation-proof clothes once they have a baby. However, scientists said these suits could be doing more harm than good.

Last Sunday, a CCTV program exposed that these radiation-proof clothes do not protect people from daily doses of radiation. An experiment carried out at a national leading electronic test center showed that the radiation absorption by a person wearing a radiation suit is much higher than a person without one.

A separate experiment showed that a radiation-proof suit only protects you where you're covered, so radiation can still reach the body via the ends of sleeves, neckline, etc.

The radiation that can squeezes inside the radiation clothes gets trapped inside, accelerating absorption through the skin. Like a greenhouse, the intensity of the radiation underneath the clothes is thus increased as radiation waves bounce back and forth between skin and clothing. Without these radiation clothes, normal skin can actually reflect most radiation away from the body, absorbing only a small amount.

Dr. Chen Qingsong, an expert on electromagnetic radiation at Guangdong Prevision and Treatment Center for Occupational Hygiene, said that electromagnetic radiation that is seen in our daily lives has a very small impact on human health.

"National standards for electromagnetic radiation from home appliances has been set up in 1988 with a top limit of 12 volt/meter, which is far less than a western standard," said Chen. "If a TV, a computer, a micro-wave oven and a hairdryer are turned on at the same time, their combined radiation is still harmless to human health."

近年來，在中國國內，孕婦們穿防輻射服的趨勢蔚然成風。然而，科學家表示，穿著這些防護服有時候弊大于利。

央視在上周日的節目中披露，防輻射服其實并不能對人們受到的日常輻射起到多少防護作用。一家國內頂尖的電子檢測實驗室對防輻射服進行了檢測，結果證明，穿著防護服的人所吸收的輻射量反而高于未穿防護服的人。

一項獨立的實驗證實，防輻射服只能保護覆蓋住的身體部位，而輻射波仍然會從衣服的袖口、領口等縫隙射入。

由縫隙進入防護服內部的輻射波無法反射出去，就會更快地被皮膚所吸收。這就像溫室的原理一樣，輻射波在皮膚和防輻射服之間進行多次反射后交會疊加，反而增大了防護服內的輻射強度。而如果不穿防護服，正常情況下，人的皮膚能夠將大部分的輻射都反射出去，只有很小的劑量會被人體吸收。

廣東省職業病防治院的陳青松博士是研究電磁輻射方面的專家。他介紹說，日常生活中的電磁輻射對人體的影響是微乎其微的。

陳青松說：“我國在1988年就制定了家用電器的電磁輻射標準，規定的上限為12伏每米，遠低于歐美等國家的標準。無論是電腦、電視、微波爐，還是電吹風，即使把它們全開了，疊加起來的電磁輻射對人體也不會構成傷害。”