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More countries are concerned about the iPhone 12’s EMF radiation profile

39 points by c420 3y ago

donutdan4114 3y ago
BioInitiative report. Anyone familiar?
sschueller 3y ago
The industry regulating/certifying them selves again. This is like diesel gate and Boeing/FAA. You can't have labs that depend on money of these companies to certify these same companies devices without a conflict of interest. What do people think happens to a lab that asks too many questions or sends too much back? They get replaced with a lab that toes the line. This conflict can only be dealt with tight regulations or non private-for-profit labs. Wasn't there an article here recently of a safety inspector that got fired for finding too many violations?
- vlovich123 3y ago
  Right now this looks to be a disagreement about how to measure heat dissipation. We’d need a more thorough technical analysis of what’s happened than the current slate of news reports have provided to get insight if this is an instance of what you’re claiming.
  - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    It's measuring output of EM radiation at radio frequencies! EM radiation heats body tissues and causes heating in the body when EM radiation passes through the body tissues. Nobody cares about "heat dissipation" from the battery or CPU; if the phone gets too hot then you don't touch it. Rocket science.
somat 3y ago
The cynic in me says that this is the nation state equivalent of a lawsuit frenzy. "Oh boy! A regulatory body found apple out of compliance. If we play our cards right that is an easy few million for us"
NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
So my friend is an iPhone owner, she's a retired teacher, and the iPhone is her only computer and communication device. She's asked me a couple of times, because she does worry, whether smartphones are sending harmful radiation into her body. And I've always assured her, explained how there are different types of radiation, EMF is non-ionizing, and the wattage/power levels are so small, that it's not a concern. I may have egg on my face when she starts reading these headlines.
- vlovich123 3y ago
  Tell her to read past the headlines. This is about the heat dissipation (and Apple is apparently fixing this with a sw update). While you’re technically wrong if the question really was “is the radiation safe” since heat is technically radiation, that’s not what lay people are asking about when they are asking about radiation concerns (ie EM radiation). To reiterate. This is about how much heat the iPhone generates was found to exceed limits. Apple contends that this is because of French testing protocols and not a real issue. Unclear who’s in the wrong, but certainly nothing to do with EM radiation. > The company noted that it believed the issue was “related to a specific testing protocol used by French regulators and not a safety concern.” French officials stated that they were eager to test the software update and lift their ban on sales of the iPhone 12. > The EU's standards note that within a phone's typical frequency range, the main danger of excess radiation is not changes to cells or chemicals in the body, leading to cancer, but "whole-body heat stress and excessive localized heating of tissues." The vast majority of mobile phone research indicates no adverse effects from regular exposure to the non-ionizing frequencies phones use to communicate.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    Are you trying to say that this is all about the battery and CPU heating up inside the phone? So why does the chart in TFA indicate EM frequencies? https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-electromagnetic-fields#:~:text=The%20main%20effect%20of%20radiofrequency,can%20be%20harmful%20to%20health https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/rad....
FooBarBizBazz 3y ago
I wonder if other brands have received the same scrutiny. I suspect not. In which case probably a lot of mobile phones are not safe. The only saving grace is that we don't hold them up to our heads to use them as telephones much any more.

39 points by c420 3y ago

BioInitiative report. Anyone familiar?

The industry regulating/certifying them selves again. This is like diesel gate and Boeing/FAA. You can't have labs that depend on money of these companies to certify these same companies devices without a conflict of interest. What do people think happens to a lab that asks too many questions or sends too much back? They get replaced with a lab that toes the line. This conflict can only be dealt with tight regulations or non private-for-profit labs. Wasn't there an article here recently of a safety inspector that got fired for finding too many violations?

vlovich123 3y ago
Right now this looks to be a disagreement about how to measure heat dissipation. We’d need a more thorough technical analysis of what’s happened than the current slate of news reports have provided to get insight if this is an instance of what you’re claiming.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  It's measuring output of EM radiation at radio frequencies! EM radiation heats body tissues and causes heating in the body when EM radiation passes through the body tissues. Nobody cares about "heat dissipation" from the battery or CPU; if the phone gets too hot then you don't touch it. Rocket science.

somat 3y ago

The cynic in me says that this is the nation state equivalent of a lawsuit frenzy. "Oh boy! A regulatory body found apple out of compliance. If we play our cards right that is an easy few million for us"

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago

So my friend is an iPhone owner, she's a retired teacher, and the iPhone is her only computer and communication device. She's asked me a couple of times, because she does worry, whether smartphones are sending harmful radiation into her body. And I've always assured her, explained how there are different types of radiation, EMF is non-ionizing, and the wattage/power levels are so small, that it's not a concern. I may have egg on my face when she starts reading these headlines.

vlovich123 3y ago
Tell her to read past the headlines. This is about the heat dissipation (and Apple is apparently fixing this with a sw update). While you’re technically wrong if the question really was “is the radiation safe” since heat is technically radiation, that’s not what lay people are asking about when they are asking about radiation concerns (ie EM radiation). To reiterate. This is about how much heat the iPhone generates was found to exceed limits. Apple contends that this is because of French testing protocols and not a real issue. Unclear who’s in the wrong, but certainly nothing to do with EM radiation. > The company noted that it believed the issue was “related to a specific testing protocol used by French regulators and not a safety concern.” French officials stated that they were eager to test the software update and lift their ban on sales of the iPhone 12. > The EU's standards note that within a phone's typical frequency range, the main danger of excess radiation is not changes to cells or chemicals in the body, leading to cancer, but "whole-body heat stress and excessive localized heating of tissues." The vast majority of mobile phone research indicates no adverse effects from regular exposure to the non-ionizing frequencies phones use to communicate.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  Are you trying to say that this is all about the battery and CPU heating up inside the phone? So why does the chart in TFA indicate EM frequencies? https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-electromagnetic-fields#:~:text=The%20main%20effect%20of%20radiofrequency,can%20be%20harmful%20to%20health https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/rad....

FooBarBizBazz 3y ago

I wonder if other brands have received the same scrutiny. I suspect not. In which case probably a lot of mobile phones are not safe. The only saving grace is that we don't hold them up to our heads to use them as telephones much any more.