Microwave Emissions From Cell Phones Exceed Safety Limits in Europe and the US When Touching the Body

2019 · Harm · Low evidence

← Research stream

HarmLow evidencePaper 1827

Study snapshot

Publicationmanual · 2019

Study typeother

Reported directionHarm

Evidence ratingLow

Abstract

Microwave Emissions From Cell Phones Exceed Safety Limits in Europe and the US When Touching the Body Gandhi OP. Microwave Emissions From Cell Phones Exceed Safety Limits in Europe and the US When Touching the Body. IEEE Access. 7:47050-47052. Apr 11, 2019. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2906017 Abstract In our publications, we have shown both from measurements and computer modeling that the specific absorption rate (SAR) reduces by 10%-15% for every millimeter separation of the cell phone on account of rapidly diminishing EM fields in the near-field region of the cell phone antenna. This rapid reduction of SAR depending on the antenna and its location on the handset has been shown, both computationally and experimentally, regardless of the phantom model such as a flat phantom suggested for SAR compliance testing of devices in contact with the body, for a sphere phantom, and for head-shaped models used for SAR compliance testing of cell phones. Unfortunately, our observations in the past were based on SARs of only three cell phones. Expecting that the SARs for cell phones may exceed the safety limits for body contact, cell phone manufacturers have started to recommend that the devices can be used at 5-25 mm from the body even though it is difficult to see how to maintain this distance correctly under mobile conditions. The National Agency ANFR of France recently released the cell phone SAR test data for 450 cell phones that measure 10-g SARs reducing by 10%-30% for each millimeter distal placement from the planar body phantom. Their data corroborate our findings that most cell phones will exceed the safety guidelines when held against the body by factors of 1.6-3.7 times for the European/ICNIRP standard or by factors as high as 11 if 1-g SAR values were to be measured as required by the U.S. FCC. Open access paper: ieeexplore.ieee.org

Machine Enhanced Logic

AI evidence extraction

Structured fields below were generated from the paper’s abstract and metadata to make the evidence easier to inspect. Automated extraction may be incomplete or incorrect; verify important details against the original paper.

Study typeother

Effect directionharm

PopulationNot supplied

Sample size450

Exposuremicrowave

Evidence strengthLowConfidence: 74% · Peer reviewed: yes

Main findings

The abstract reports that SAR decreases with increasing separation distance between a cell phone and the body (reported as ~10%–30% reduction per millimeter in ANFR data). It states that ANFR-released SAR test data for 450 phones corroborate that most cell phones would exceed safety guidelines when held against the body by factors of 1.6–3.7 (European/ICNIRP, 10-g SAR) and potentially up to 11 if 1-g SAR values were measured as required by the U.S. FCC.

Outcomes measured

Specific absorption rate (SAR) relative to regulatory safety limits
Effect of phone-to-body separation distance on SAR
Regulatory compliance (ICNIRP/European vs U.S. FCC SAR approaches)

Limitations

This article summarizes prior measurements/modeling and ANFR test data; the abstract does not describe a new experimental protocol in this paper.
Earlier observations by the author were based on SARs of only three cell phones (as stated).
No specific phone models, frequencies, or absolute SAR values are provided in the abstract.
The abstract references potential exceedance under U.S. FCC requirements but does not provide underlying 1-g SAR measurements in the text provided.

View raw extracted JSON

{
  "study_type": "other",
  "exposure": {
    "band": "microwave",
    "source": "mobile phone",
    "frequency_mhz": null,
    "sar_wkg": null,
    "duration": null
  },
  "population": null,
  "sample_size": 450,
  "outcomes": [
    "Specific absorption rate (SAR) relative to regulatory safety limits",
    "Effect of phone-to-body separation distance on SAR",
    "Regulatory compliance (ICNIRP/European vs U.S. FCC SAR approaches)"
  ],
  "main_findings": "The abstract reports that SAR decreases with increasing separation distance between a cell phone and the body (reported as ~10%–30% reduction per millimeter in ANFR data). It states that ANFR-released SAR test data for 450 phones corroborate that most cell phones would exceed safety guidelines when held against the body by factors of 1.6–3.7 (European/ICNIRP, 10-g SAR) and potentially up to 11 if 1-g SAR values were measured as required by the U.S. FCC.",
  "effect_direction": "harm",
  "limitations": [
    "This article summarizes prior measurements/modeling and ANFR test data; the abstract does not describe a new experimental protocol in this paper.",
    "Earlier observations by the author were based on SARs of only three cell phones (as stated).",
    "No specific phone models, frequencies, or absolute SAR values are provided in the abstract.",
    "The abstract references potential exceedance under U.S. FCC requirements but does not provide underlying 1-g SAR measurements in the text provided."
  ],
  "evidence_strength": "low",
  "confidence": 0.74,
  "peer_reviewed_likely": "yes",
  "keywords": [
    "cell phone",
    "microwave emissions",
    "specific absorption rate",
    "SAR",
    "near-field",
    "body contact",
    "separation distance",
    "ANFR",
    "ICNIRP",
    "FCC",
    "compliance testing",
    "phantom model"
  ],
  "suggested_hubs": [
    {
      "slug": "who-icnirp",
      "weight": 0.86,
      "reason": "Abstract explicitly discusses European/ICNIRP safety guidelines and compliance testing context."
    }
  ]
}

AI can be wrong. Always verify against the paper.

AI-extracted fields are generated from the abstract and metadata and may be incomplete or incorrect. This material is for informational purposes and is not medical advice.

Identifiers and source

DOI: 10.1109/access.2019.2906017
PubMed: Not supplied

Read the original paper →

Related papers

← Back to the Research Library