More Countries Are Concerned About iPhone 12's Radiation Levels (reuters.com) 63
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Belgium said on Thursday it would review potential health risks linked to Apple's iPhone 12, raising the prospect that more European countries might ban the model after France ordered a halt to sales due to breaches of radiation exposure limits. However, there seemed to be no immediate prospect of an EU-wide ban as the European Commission said it would wait for feedback from other EU countries before deciding on any action. European Union member states, which were notified by the French regulator on Wednesday, have three months to provide comments. Some, such as Italy, said they would take no steps for now.
Mathieu Michel, Belgium's state secretary for digitalization told Reuters that the Belgian regulator was looking into the matter after the French moves. "We immediately asked the IBPT (Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications) for confirmation, or at least an analysis, and this is currently under way," he said. Michel also asked the regulator to review all Apple smartphones, and devices made by others, at a later stage. However, he stressed that European standards were extremely cautious and there were no immediate safety concerns. "So that's why today it's obviously a limit which is being crossed (according to the French regulator) and that's not acceptable, but in terms of health and safety, I don't think there's any reason to think that we're all going to turn into little green men."
The iPhone 12 had passed the radiation test conducted by the French agency in 2021. Germany's network regulator BNetzA reiterated that the work in France could act as a guide for Europe as a whole and that it would examine the issue for the German market if the process in France had progressed sufficiently. The Dutch digital watchdog also said it was looking into the matter and would ask the U.S. firm for an explanation, while stressing there was "no acute safety risk." Portugal's telecommunications regulator ANACOM said it was monitoring and analyzing developments in coordination with France, and expected one of the two likely outcomes: Apple correcting the situation or, failing that, Brussels telling EU member states "to adopt proportional measures." Britain, where the iPhone 12 met radiation safety standards when it was released, has not announced any plans in the wake of France's decision.
Mathieu Michel, Belgium's state secretary for digitalization told Reuters that the Belgian regulator was looking into the matter after the French moves. "We immediately asked the IBPT (Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications) for confirmation, or at least an analysis, and this is currently under way," he said. Michel also asked the regulator to review all Apple smartphones, and devices made by others, at a later stage. However, he stressed that European standards were extremely cautious and there were no immediate safety concerns. "So that's why today it's obviously a limit which is being crossed (according to the French regulator) and that's not acceptable, but in terms of health and safety, I don't think there's any reason to think that we're all going to turn into little green men."
The iPhone 12 had passed the radiation test conducted by the French agency in 2021. Germany's network regulator BNetzA reiterated that the work in France could act as a guide for Europe as a whole and that it would examine the issue for the German market if the process in France had progressed sufficiently. The Dutch digital watchdog also said it was looking into the matter and would ask the U.S. firm for an explanation, while stressing there was "no acute safety risk." Portugal's telecommunications regulator ANACOM said it was monitoring and analyzing developments in coordination with France, and expected one of the two likely outcomes: Apple correcting the situation or, failing that, Brussels telling EU member states "to adopt proportional measures." Britain, where the iPhone 12 met radiation safety standards when it was released, has not announced any plans in the wake of France's decision.
So That Explains It. (Score:2)
They are radiationally retarded.
Unless it glows... (Score:1)
Unless I can see it glow with Cherenkov radiation on a bright sunny environment, I really don't care.
Apple user, not fanboy. iPhone 12 came out three years ago. Regulators could easily have shoved it in an RF analysis chamber and determined this a long time ago and filed some sort of action. That they waited this long to gripe about it says that they don't care about this, but are after some sort of other capitulation from Apple.
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An Apple product currently sold at retail is out of regulatory RF compliance. France will accept a software update fix. This should be a non-issue where Apple adds some sanity checks and has the phone tell them why it wanted to go out of bounds.
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Ionizing Radiation is bio-accumulative in a sense.
5G is non-ionizing.
Basically unless you are using the phone 8 hours a day next to your head, crotch, ovaries, or breasts, you probably aren't receiving enough radiation to be of concern.
A lot of the problems with measuring wireless radiation is that it has a very steep drop off, so you literately have to have the phone in contact with your temple on your head to actually do something dangerous with it. While talking on it. People don't hold it there, they t
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It depends why the limit has been exceeded. If it was to correct some defect, like maybe some newer model of the modem didn't perform as well as the older one so they cranked up the transmit power to compensate, then the fix could trigger compensation claims from consumers.
Mobile transmission power is low (Score:2, Insightful)
The maximum power of a mobile phone is 1W or 2W at most distance from a transmitters depending on the frequency used. In cities and towns that doesn't happen outside that the phone is at maximum power. In cities the transmission power is at 0.1W or less depending on location. Maximum transmission power maybe happens inside, but that depends on many factors. This seems to be a misinformation or some other type of wrong information happening here. I don't know why they are pushing this nonsense in France. The
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The radiation from mobile phones is also harmless and always has been.
That was my first thought, too. Cell phones are completely incapable of emitting harmful radiation. This is purely political, though I don't know what the political angle might be.
Re:Mobile transmission power is low (Score:5, Informative)
Cell phones are completely incapable of emitting harmful radiation.
No one here other than a few people on Slashdot are talking about harm. Harm has zero to do with it. The phone is outside of the SAR limit defined in IEC 62209-2, though inside the limit defined in IEC 62209-1. That makes it a regulatory non-compliance issue.
This is purely political
Only because you're making it political. Regulatory bodies don't give a shit about your politics. This isn't America. No one is bending regulations to make someone look non-complaint. The only question that can be raised is: was the testing faulty or not, and regulators from other countries are examining if this is the case.
Stop making this something it's not.
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Conspiracy speculation here: Perhaps the EU is sick and tired of Apple. What a great way to open up a market by thinking of the children.
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Conspiracy speculation here: Perhaps the EU is sick and tired of Apple. What a great way to open up a market by thinking of the children.
The EU isn't doing anything. France has said something, and it's done so to a product that is about to be withdrawn from market as obsolete. The mark of a good conspiracy theory is that someone has something to gain from it. This benefits no one.
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This benefits no one.
How do you know this? The jury is still out. There is no scientific finding yet.
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France has also banned a few other brands / models over the years.
I recall seeing Oppo and other brands mentioned in another article (can't find it offhand now). The below link also states that France has taken action on a few brands/models over the pass few years. So this is not Apple specific - it's just that Apple has a much higher profile.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sc... [dailymail.co.uk]
says :
Since 2017, the ANFR has banned the sale of 42 smartphones for giving off too much radiation, while on six of these occasions th
Re:Mobile transmission power is low (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyways most people use ear buds as a fashion statement these days, the public harm must be 1/1000th of what it was 20 years ago.
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Anyways most people use ear buds as a fashion statement these days, the public harm must be 1/1000th of what it was 20 years ago.
Funny you mention this. IEC 62209-1 which passed is the SAR limit for head model. IEC 62209-2 which failed is the SAR limit for the body model, i.e. specifically the example of you using your earbuds while your phone is in your pocket.
Incidentally while you're right harm isn't an issue, I wouldn't be so fast to say harm is 1/1000th of what it was 20 years ago. One of the bigger earlier problems with the move to smaller phones is that phones were running into the head SAR limit, even before wifi, and bluetoo
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Great story now follow your conspiracy through. Tell us how the the ANFR benefits from Apple being unable to sell a phone that is two generations behind as of today, and how they will get that sweet sweet Apple money by getting Apple to no longer sell a product that Apple (and this is the important bit) no longer actually sells.
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I consider this disinformation of the most insidious kind. A 5 second search yielded this
Background
Use of cellular phones emitting radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) has been increased exponentially and become a part of everyday life. This study aimed to investigate the effects of in vitro RF-EMF exposure emitted from cellular phones on sperm motility index, sperm DNA fragmentation and seminal clusterin (CLU) gene expression.
There was a significant decrease in sperm motility, sperm linear velocity, sperm linearity index, and sperm acrosin activity, whereas there was a significant increase in sperm DNA fragmentation percent, CLU gene expression and CLU protein levels in the exposed semen samples to RF-EMF compared with non-exposed samples in OAT>AT>A>N groups, respectively (p greather than 0.05).
Conclusion
Cell phone emissions have a negative impact on exposed sperm motility index, sperm acrosin activity, sperm DNA fragmentation and seminal CLU gene expression, especially in OAT cases.
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This seems to be a misinformation or some other type of wrong information happening here. I don't know why they are pushing this nonsense in France.
They're 'pushing' this for the same reason we push many ideas on society today.
Clickbait, is highly profitable now.
Here, let me say that more accurately; lying, is highly profitable now.
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Lying has always been highly profitable, unfortunately.
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Lying has always been highly profitable, unfortunately.
Lying was profitable, but not really acceptable in the past. You were actually punished or shamed for doing it before. If not by society then by your friends.
Today we dismiss lying as an extension of entertainment. We're raising narcissists from birth now thanks to social media. We've normalized that now. Unfortunately, we've also normalized a complete distrust in each other before puberty hits as a result too. The culture of 'dating' in the West speaks volumes, as does the rate of both men and women
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We have examined invitro cell response to mobile phone radiation (900MHz GSM signal) using two variants of human endothelial cell line: EA.hy926 and EA.hy926v1. Gene expression changes were examined in three experiments using cDNA Expression Arrays and protein expression changes were examined in ten experiments using 2-DE and PDQuest software. Obtained results show that gene and protein expression were altered, in both examined cell lines, in response to one hour mobile phone radiation exposure at an average specific absorption rate of 2.8W/kg.
Altered gene and protein expression... how much more evidence do people need? If an authority like Dr Fauci came out one day and told people cell phones were harmful, would they then believe it? I go on google scholar and its article after article that finds cell phone radiation has effects.
Re: Mobile transmission power is low (Score:5, Interesting)
It's probably got far more to do with minimising interference to other devices than harm to people. All two way radios have TX power limits for this reason and a cellphone is no exception.
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Re:Mobile transmission power is low (Score:5, Informative)
The maximum power of a mobile phone is 1W or 2W at most distance from a transmitters depending on the frequency used.
That is not how EM absorption works. Power is not defined in an instantaneous point but rather over something, be that a surface or in the case of SAR into a mass. The limit is 2W/kg in the head, and 4W/kg into the body.
This seems to be a misinformation or some other type of wrong information happening here.
No misinformation or wrong information. The SAR limit is the same virtually all over the world and is covered by IEC standards. Mobile companies tune their modems to push against this limit as a maximum. In 2021 the phone passed the test. Now it doesn't. Further investigations are underway. If you want to claim it's nonsense then please show your own independent testing to confirm that they are doing it wrong.
The radiation from mobile phones is also harmless and always has been.
Zero people our outlets have said that the radiation is harmful. The claim is that it is above the regulatory limit adopted in most countries in the world, nothing more, nothing less. The real nonsense here is equating it to harm which no one other than the peanut gallery is doing.
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Problem is, every OS update on a phone can probably change the power levels (ios, Android, whatever).
So if you don't test it for every update, you don't know if a particular brand / model is going above limits with an update. So what may have been within limits in 2021 could be above limits after one of the updates since 2021 till now.
And yeah, as far as I know, the radiation (yes I know that word usually has negative connotations) from mobile devices do not actually cause harm. At least nothing proven anyw
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Why are you not backing this up with data? What studies are you using?
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This is also a very fixable problem. If it is because the 12 is looking for older towers and not finding them, even by turning up the antenna up all the way, this can be easily addressed by a firmware update with the radio subsystem.
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Not really.
While it's generally harmless below 2w, it should not be operating at 2 watts unless you're in a basement or 10 miles from the cell site with line of sight.
I'd more willing to believe that there was a mistake made in the testing methodology due to software update state. But I guess we won't know unless Apple responds.
Radiation (Score:2, Insightful)
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any living being with DNA
A living being has DNA.
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SAR is not based on ionising radiation and has nothing to do with ionising radiation.
Re: Radiation (Score:1)
Can EM emissions, EM radiation cause ionization radiation like in something it strikes?
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Not without energy input, and lots of it. Ionizing radiation is EM radiation, just of a very particular energy state. What you are referring to as EM radiation or EM emissions lower frequency forms of emissions. Between this and ionizing radiation is visible light. You will see something long before it becomes dangerous.
The masses are dumb. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Someone didn't pay their waggle-finger tax, so the drums are being beaten.
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As a physicist: How else would you call it?
It is radiation in the same way IR,optical,Optical or gamma radiation is radiation.
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compliance testing (Score:1)
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Does this mean that all these countries failed the compliance testing? This is not an Apple problem but a testing problem. Someone passed the compliance test.
I have a strong suspicion that when they switched off one of the older cellular technologies like GSM or CDMA, a bunch of phones began screaming at the top of their lungs trying to find one, resulting in significantly more total signal output averaged over time than prior to those changes.
Re:compliance testing (Score:5, Interesting)
Does this mean that all these countries failed the compliance testing? This is not an Apple problem but a testing problem. Someone passed the compliance test.
It's also possible that the phone was compliant at the time of the original testing, but became non-compliant afterwards e.g. due to a software updated.
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I wonder how feasible it would be for the phone to detect it's in a test and reduce emissions during the testing regimen, Volkswagen-style. Does anyone know what kind of procedures are used for these RF tests?
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This appears to have been the case. Apple has apparently announced plans to push out a software update to address the issue in the field.
Not a hard problem to solve... (Score:1)
All Apple has to do is flash the radio ROM to use less power, and that is that. I know radio output is worrisome to some, but not really sure why this couldn't have been handled with a simple email of "ahem, lower the power on your transceivers", and not a public outcry.
I'm seeing a tad of good old fashioned jingoism here.
This is a marketing problem (Score:2)
Hell, they could charge a monthly subscription fee for them.
What a coincidence (Score:2)
Just in time for the new iPhone 15 ;)
apple brain cancer (Score:1)
Do you know why M&M's in Europe are bland colors, no reds or greens or blues? It's because they require the labeling to say "We use gasoline-like chemicals to color our food". Since they pay off the FDA in the USA, they can put this nasty stuff in food and get away with it. Since they aren't bribing all the European leaders, the people there get taken care of.
I saw somebody write "It's only if you put the phone next your head while using it..." which is exactly what the phone is designed to do. Or ma