Why We Care

Government Concerns and FCC Regulations

The governments of most industrialized nations are increasingly issuing warnings, limits, and even laws that encourage consumers to reduce EMR exposure from their cell phones. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) supports a "precautionary principle" in practice; the governments of England, Finland, and France have issued warnings about the potential health hazards of cell phone radiation; and Israel is proposing legislation to discourage children from using cell phones.

In the United States, the City of San Francisco has passed legislation to require SAR rating labels on all cell phones. At the federal level, the FCC has for years limited cell phones to an output rating of 1.6 SAR. Unfortunately, this rating expressly assumes that cell phone users will not put their phones against their heads!

So my cell phone is safe?

Amazingly, with all the limitation of SAR, the FCC declares that "Any cell phone at or below these SAR levels (that is, any phone legally sold in the U.S.) is a safe phone." Since this is not a universally accepted conclusion, many suspect such rash statements may reflect pressure from the wireless industry to convince consumers of something that cannot yet possibly be known.

Elsewhere in the world, the conclusions are dramatically different. For example, in the UK the Minister for Public Health established the Independent Expert Group to assess the health risks of mobile phone radiation in Great Britain. Among the conclusions, the report stated, "It is not possible at present to say that exposure to RF radiation, even at levels below national guidelines, is totally without potential adverse health effects, and that the gaps in knowledge are sufficient to justify a precautionary approach."

The French Government following a similar intense review of research recommended in January 2001 that users should adopt: "An approach based on the Precautionary Principle with the general overall objective of reducing average exposure of the public to the lowest possible level."

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also concluded that the Precautionary Approach is an appropriate response to the lack of scientific consensus regarding the long term health effects of exposure to cell phone radiation. And the governments of many countries are considering actions to encourage limited use, especially by children.

What is the "Precautionary Principle"?

The precautionary principle is a derivative of the Hippocratic Oath which has been adopted by the American Medical Association. The precautionary principle states that if something is suspected of causing a risk or harm to the public and there is not scientific consensus on the matter, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those creating the risk. Until the matter is resolved, all reasonable precautions should be taken to protect the public.

In other words, until the cell phone industry can prove that radiation from their devices is safe, authorities should do all they can to protect the public from the potential source of harm. Given that there currently does not exist a consensus in the scientific community on the effects of cell phone radiation (link to debate), and given that it will take years of research on human subjects to determine the answer to this important issue, we find it remarkable that the FCC has chosen to declare all cell phones meeting the FCC's limits for SAR to be safe.

Is there a better measurement than SAR?

At Pong, we feel a much more meaningful measurement to consumers is the amount of Near Field Intensity (NFI) emitted by your phone. Read more about NFI.