Holding a black electronic gadget in hand, Cheng Jing, a 38-year old man living in the Baiziwan Community, Chaoyang District, Beijing, carefully reads the figure on its screen and jots it down on a notebook.

Cheng is a voluntary "radiation examiner" in the community.

The man began his voluntary, free-of-charge business to measure the radiation of home appliances and power transmission facilitiesfor the neighbors two months ago.

For the past two years, many residents in Baiziwan have worried about the electromagnetic radiation released by the high-voltage wires on the north of the residential area. The Baiziwan Community was built in 2006.

A mobile-phone transmission tower, which was erected close to the residential block, has further intensified their concerns about radiation.

In Beijing, as in many other Chinese cities, residents from the same community have set up their own online forums. Soon, the Baiziwan Forum was flooded with worries about the threat from radiation. Some said they may hire professional agencies to help test the electromagnetic radiation in their apartments.

Such a test by a professional agency normally costs around 1,500 yuan (219 dollars) for each suite, and the results come out in three working days.

Cheng, who majored in electronic engineering in college and now works with a telecommunication company, has studied the impacts of radiation on humans in daily life for a few years. He found that a portable testing device was a good and low-cost way to measure radiation in private houses.

One could easily buy a portable radiation-testing device from Taobao.Com, a leading e-shopping website in the country.

"These devices are authentic and quality ones, with official certification," he said.

So far, the man has tested electromagnetic radiation for almost30 families living in Baiziwan and other communities. The results have all turned out to be safe.

Recently, Cheng posted the detailed results of some of his tests, on the high-voltage electric transmission towers and the mobile-phone relay stations. He assured his neighbors that the electromagnetic radiation in their community is within the safe range.

"I just want to clear my neighbors' doubts and worries," Chen said. "Compared with outdoor radiation sources like mobile-phone relay stations, some electronic home appliances like energy-saving reading lamps and old-style kinescope televisions might produce more radiation."

What Cheng has done has indicated a rising demand of "electromagnetic radiation testing" among Beijing residents.

Some people have doubted if his test results are reliable and accurate.

"People who want to get an accurate and authoritative result should better go to the professional institutions," said Song Guangsheng, director of the National Indoor Environment Test Center.

Results of radiation tested by individuals cannot be used as evidence in court and in most of the cases as they are not accurate enough, Song said.

Although home appliance manufacturers and power-supply companies have claimed that their products or equipment are safe, more and more Chinese have showed their worries about the threat of radiation in their daily life.

In recent years, there have been reports about residents who have tried to sabotage the building of high-voltage facilities close to their residence.

Source:Xinhua