Electromagnetic Smog

1. Introduction

Electromagnetic pollution is one kind of environmental pollution which is of electromagnetic origin. You can imagine it like a smog composed of many kinds of electromagnetic waves. For this reason the term “electromagnetic smog” or “electrosmog” is used sometimes against of the more official term of “electromagnetic pollution”.

There is a need to make certain objects invisible, or at least less visible, to radar. Such objects range from submarine periscopes to complete warships, from stealth aircraft to wind turbines.

Materials Science can meet this need, providing materials that absorb the incident microwave energy – radar absorbing materials (RAM) – or complete structures designed to do the same thing – radar absorbing structures (RAS). A number of solutions incorporate reinforced plastics, composites and metamaterials. This kind of materials can be used to protect sensitive areas from electromagnetic pollution but the high absorption they have can create problems to the functioning of cell telephony, which needs the electromagnetic waves reflections on building structures to work well.