PC myths: the truth

Posted on 14 Jul 2008 at 15:02

 

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This didn't stop cynical entrepreneurs from exploiting concerns by selling screens to block display radiation. The products claimed to stop rays streaming from displays by placing a shield of treated glass in front of the monitor. This is despite the fact that most harmful radiation leakage came from the sides and the rear of CRTs.

Two New York companies were sued for inflating the danger, accused that their claims were false and unsubstantiated. "Do you or your children sit in front of a computer monitor?" their adverts said. "If the answer is yes, you need TECNO AO PROTECTORS. Scientific studies have shown that exposure to electromagnetic radiation causes eye damage, head-, neck- and backaches, anxiety, insomnia and memory loss. It has also been linked to cancers and brain tumours."

According to a 1990 report about visual display units (VDUs) from the Health and Safety Executive, "VDUs have been blamed (often wrongly) for a wide range of health problems. In fact, only a small proportion of VDU users actually suffer ill health as a result of their work, and [this is] generally caused by the way in which VDUs are being used rather than the VDUs themselves."

Dr Joanna Peak, science information officer at Cancer Research UK, says: "There is no good evidence that radiation given out by computers and their screens can cause cancer. This type of radiation does not have enough energy to permanently damage our DNA, which can lead to cancer. This was first concluded in a report published by the Health Protection Agency in 1994, which found no evidence that the electromagnetic fields produced by computer displays are hazardous to our health. Since this report, there have been no strong studies to challenge these findings."

The problem of debunking such a myth is complicated by the level of background noise radiating from the discussion. Are health effects caused by other influences such as stress, poor posture, mobile phone signals or fluorescent lighting? Scientists have failed to prove anything conclusive either way. Besides, newer LCD screens emit far less radiation.

Perhaps the best guide is that an exhaustive search with Google uncovered no class action suit taken against monitor manufacturers.

Anti-virus software will keep you safe online
Credibility rating 6/10
Origin Pacifying adverts and scaremongering press releases from security vendors

Anti-virus and other anti-malware software is a critical weapon in the fight against the web's ne'er-do-wells. However, consumers who assume that this means they are safe are wrong.Tests from independent companies suggest that many popular brands of security software can miss well-known viruses on home computers, leaving internet-connected computers exposed.

According to researchers at Oxford-based Virus Bulletin, only half of all security suites tested on Windows machines earlier this year got the all-clear from the company's testing procedure. "I've been working here for three years and always expect that we are going to get 100 per cent detection of our sample on the machines in the test, but we never have," says John Hawes, Virus Bulletin's technical consultant.

The company uses known viruses from www.wildlist.org to infect computers and expects software to detect them all, with no false positives. "[These] viruses are well reported and self-spreading, and only a snapshot of what's out there," says Hawes. In an April test of 37 security packages for Vista, less than half detected all the threats and threw up no false positives.