Faraday Wall Paint?
May 26th, 2006 by Alex
DefendAir Radio Shield is a metal-laced paint that claims to block radio waves. The product is made by Force Field Wireless and was covered in Information Week (briefly this May, in depth in late 2004). The idea is that it will prevent wireless signals from coming in or out.
Sold by Force Field Wireless (FFW), the paint uses a copper and aluminum fibered compound to block radio emissions. This supposedly turns your home or office into a giant Faraday cage. Before I would plunk down any money for this, I’d want to see it TEMPEST-approved. I would be curious to see three-way comparison: bare drywall, bare drywall with DefendAir, drywall with a proper Faraday cage.
Then there are health/environmental concerns.
The DefendAir FAQ clearly states that the product does not contain lead, yet I do wonder about the safety of metal-flaked indoor paint in general. Kids like eating paint chips, without regard to the ingredients. Do their tongues turn green from the copper if they chew on a few pieces? what about licking the walls? All kidding aside, homeowners with young children or pets may want to get more information.
Any fibered-product can cause skin and respiratory irritation, especially when broken down into a dust. While asbestos and fiberglass are the two primary suspects these days, how many contractors will suffer injury a decade from now when they’re tearing down office buildings layered with this new paint? Will we see costly removal projects in the future, just as we do now for asbestos removal?
Though I question the safety of the product, it does look pretty cool. Though expensive, it’s certainly cheaper than building a proper Faraday cage around your entire building, or retrofitting your offices for the same purpose. I imagine one of the largest purposes would be for SCIF construction. Along these lines, FFW lists MIT and Lockheed Martin as customers, as well as the Department of State and the Department of Defense. Barring my health concerns, an $80 gallon of this paint may just be the thing for a tin-foil-hat-wearing friend.
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