Making Call on Radiation

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While people have long feared cell phone radiation, a high-profile report that it could cause cancer has heightened those concerns. But it has been a boon to business for Pong Research Corp.

The company’s Panorama City lab develops radiation-redirecting cell phone cases, and it has seen increased sales and raised its first round of funding recently.

U.S. consumers have been less concerned with the effects of phone radiation than those in other countries, said Shannon Kennedy, Pong’s chief executive. But the World Health Organization reported in May that radiation from phones could increase the risk of cancer, and that has drawn attention.

“It did have a significant impact on our sales volumes,” said Kennedy.

The company’s cases are equipped with an antenna that points the phone’s radiation away from the user’s head. The cases, which are only sold on Pong’s website, retail for $50 and come in a variety of colors.

The researchers behind Pong’s technology have been studying cell phone radiation for a decade. They began designing and manufacturing phone cases under the name Pong Research in January.

The 20-person company, which has corporate offices in Middleberg, Va., announced last month that it had raised its first round of funding from Greenwich Village, Conn., private-equity firm Catterton Partners. Pong will use the money to increase its marketing staff and add lab space.

The company will focus most of its marketing on the international market because there’s more demand for its cases there, Kennedy said.

“One of the first plans was to internationalize,” he said. “We focus on the European market because it’s very far ahead of the U.S. as far as solutions to cell phone radiation.”

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