Cow dung produced by Indian cows does not absorb harmful radiation,says Indian scientist
New Delhi August 9:In a recent interview with The Indian Express, Shankar Lal, president of Akhil Bharatiya Gau Sewa Sangh, an outfit associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), claimed that dung produced by Indian cows has the power to absorb harmful radiation. Physicist Vikram Soni says”While cow dung might have insulating properties, which is the reason for it to be applied on walls of houses, and even antiseptic features, it is unlikely to absorb radioactivity,” he said.
While cow urine and dung may possibly have antiseptic properties, Lal made a more intriguing case for the use of the latter.
He said he applies “fresh cow dung” on the back of his mobile phone to protect himself from harmful radioactive emissions from it. “If cow dung can treat cancer, why can’t it save us from a phone’s microwaves?” Thus went his logic.
His claim, though, is not based on real scientific evidence. Rather, its origins are as mythical, and as dubious, as the fraudulent “system” of Vedic Mathematics.
Speaking to Huffington Post India, scientist Virander S. Chauhan, former director of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, said there was no basis behind the claim that cow dung can protect people from radiation.
“In order to prove any such theory, someone has to first conduct an experiment.
Apply cow dung to one sample of mobile phones and measure their emissions against phones that are not coated with dung,” he said. “Then publish the results in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Only then can one say anything on the matter.”
Physicist Vikram Soni, Professor Emeritus at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and author of the book Naturally: Tread Softly on the Planet, agreed with Chauhan.
“Emissions from the digestive tracts of cows include methane and other greenhouse gases, but cows are not known to produce dung that can absorb radiation,” he told Huffington Post.
“While cow dung might have insulating properties, which is the reason for it to be applied on walls of houses, and even antiseptic features, it is unlikely to absorb radioactivity,” he said.
Like Chauhan, he also said that such a claim should not be made without verifying it first through clinical experiments.
