Radiation from Smartphones could put you at Serious Risk

The latest range of smartphones could put you in risk of "serious" harm, the makers of Blackberry said.

With consumers becoming more conscious about the levels of radiation emitted from their phones, with Telstra planning to publish comparison data on mobiles' "specific absorption rate" (SAR), The Daily Telegraph reports.

The move will allow customers to directly compare SAR levels between phones. At the moment, information on the levels is not produced by the regulatory authority, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)

Apple's popular iPhone 4 also risks exceeding exposure guidelines in certain circumstances.

The actual guidelines are not set by the ACMA, but by the The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency

The limits set in Australia are 2 watts per kilogram of tissue, higher than the 1.6W/kg in the US.

Research in Motion, the creators of Blackberry, suggest in the user manual for the Blackberry Torch that owners use "approved holster with an integrated belt clip or maintain a distance" of 25mm between the "BlackBerry device and your body while the BlackBerry device is transmitting".

"Use of body-worn accessories, other than RIM-approved holsters with an integrated belt clip, might cause your BlackBerry device to exceed radio frequency (RF) exposure standards. The long-term effects of exceeding RF exposure standards might present a risk of serious harm."

And the Apple iPhone 4 guide says: "iPhone's SAR measurement may exceed [US] . . . exposure guidelines for body-worn operation if positioned less than 15mm from the body (eg, when carrying iPhone in your pocket)."

Telstra's electromagnetic energy co-ordinator Mike Wood told the Daily Telegraph: "Technically speaking, under the worst-case scenario, you might be in breach of the SAR limit."

The phones were still safe, Mr Wood said.

Australian Centre for RF Bioeffects Research executive director, University of Wollongong Professor Rodney Croft, told The Daily Telegraph: "Even if it is over the limit there is no evidence . . . that it would cause harm unless it was at least 50 times the limit."

Source: Yahoo News