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

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.

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