If you haven’t read your cellphone manual closely, you might want to take a closer look. It advises you to avoid carrying your cellphone here so you can avoid exceeding the safety limit for radio frequency exposure. Yet, almost everyone makes this agonizing mistake. STORY AT-A-GLANCE A little-known warning from the manufacturer hidden within your cellphone manual advises you to keep the device at a certain distance from your body to ensure you don’t exceed federal safety limits for radiofrequency (RF) exposure
Depending on the manufacturer, you need to keep your cellphone at least 5 to 15 (0.19 to 0.59 inches) millimeters away from your head and body at all times to avoid exceeding the safety limit for RF exposure
In the real-world, most people carry their phones close to their body, usually in a pocket or bra. When popular cellphones were tested in direct contact to the body, they all exceeded the safety limit
SAR is a measure of how much RF energy your body will absorb from the device when held at a specific distance from your body (ranging from 5 to 15 mm, depending on the manufacturer). It’s important to realize that the SAR value is not an indication of how safe your phone is
SAR testing, which is modeled on a very large male head, was devised before cellphone usage became commonplace among toddlers and young children, whose skulls allow for far greater RF energy penetration In this special edition of CBC Marketplace, originally aired March 2017, journalist Wendy Mesley investigates the safety of cellphones, focusing on a little-known warning from the manufacturer hidden within your cellphone manual that advises you to keep the device at a certain distance from your body to ensure you don’t exceed the federal safety limit for radiofrequency (RF) exposure….