Objective To research the effective protection from microwaves radiated from mobile telephones. Methods The observed mobile telephone was covered with a compound membrane developed by us and made from metal foil, metal silk screen, graphite and binder with a thickness of 0.5 mm. The electromagnetic field intensities were determined at 2.6 cm far from the front of the speaker, screen and keyboard of the observed mobile telephones covered with protective membrane or not. Results The electromagnetic field intensities of those three monitored locations mentioned above were 0.145, 0.095 and 0.085 mW/cm 2 for the mobile telephone without the protective membrane respectively, and were all