We aren't saying that cell phones will or will not cause brain cancer,
but we can tell you which handsets have the lowest and highest radiation
levels -- and give you the tools to choose to buy phones with less radiation.
The U.S. government tests each cell phone and uses a rating system called
Specific Absorption Rate, or SAR, to measure how much radiation the
human body absorbs.
Regulators set the SAR limit at 1.6 W/kg. In other words, no phones that
radiate over 1.6 W/kg of energy can be sold in the U.S. The highest SAR
value is 1.6.
But that doesn't mean it's still safe. Unfortunately, The SAR limit was
established twenty years ago, when mobile phones were only available to the few,
and rarely used. Nobody foresaw the widespread usage, or duration, that consumers
now are using their handsets -- so regulators aren't even sure if the 1.6 limit
is low enough.
Regardless, we've combed through the FCC test records to find the SAR value
for each handset -- so concerned consumers can see the lowest and highest
radiation phones to help their buying process.
We say handsets with a SAR value under 0.8 are "Low Radiation Phones" and
devices over 1.3 are "High Radiation Phones." This is not an indication of the
health danger of the devices (again, nobody knows if 1.6 is too high or low enough),
but rather saying the phone is low or high compared to the handsets on the market.
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