Two Chinese tech companies have recently clashed over the issue of a wireless router setting specially targeting pregnant women.

The controversy started after Qihoo 360 introduces an upgraded version of its P1 router with Wi-Fi capabilities. According to BBC, Qihoo's new router has three settings described as wall penetration, balance and pregnant women.

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While the wall penetration and balance settings sounds as typical router settings, the pregnant women settings has raised some eyebrows especially from rival company Xiaomi. According to Inquisitr, Xiaomi accuses Qihoo of employing scare tactics in order to boosts its sales performance.

Based on the description provided by Qihoo, the pregnant women setting reduces the radiation emitted by its router by as much as 70 percent. Xiaomi quickly retorted this claim saying, "The so-called pregnancy mode is just a marketing tactic. WiFi usage is safe, so please rest assured when using it."

 Xiaomi and Qihoo has been fierce rivals in China's booming tech industry. Recently, Xiaomi released a new router that offers high-speed data connection with six terabytes of storage capacity. Unfortunately, Xiaomi's routers does not offer the same setting found on Qihoo's.

Qihoo chief executive officer Zhou Hongyi said that the company's new router is aimed for "people who are afraid of radiation," according to South China Morning Post.

The issue whether minor electromagnetic signals, like Wi-Fi, imposes adverse effects to its users has been going on for many years. Several international campaign has been launched in order to encourage women to stay away from phones, microwave ovens and other devices that emits electromagnetic signals.

While routers do emit electromagnetic signals, these are considered as non-ionizing radiation which means that it does not have any adverse effect to the human body especially to unborn babies. Signals emitted by routers are far less dangerous when compared to ionizing radiation coming from gamma rays and X-ray machines.

A study conducted by the World Health Organization claims that exposure to low level radiation like those coming from Wi-Fi routers does not have any direct effect to an unborn baby's overall health.

If health experts claim that Wi-Fi routers does not affect pregnant women's health, then Qihoo's new router setting is nothing more than just another marketing strategy.

TagsQihoo, Qihoo Router, radioactive router, router setting, pregnant women router setting, pregnant women wi-fi