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Apple to Curb iPhone 12 Radiation With EU-Wide Software Update

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Apple on Monday said it will issue a software update for iPhone 12 users throughout the European Union to reduce radiation levels, bringing them in line with the bloc's health standards.

Purple-iPhone-12-Mini.jpg

The update is equivalent to a September 2023 change Apple made in France to bring the iPhone 12 into compliance with a testing protocol used by the country's regulators.

France ordered Apple to halt ‌iPhone‌ 12 sales due to the model exceeding the limit for electromagnetic absorption by the body, and Apple was ordered to "fix" existing devices to bring them into electromagnetic radiation compliance with European standards.

The latest EU-wide update follows a decision published by the European Commission on Monday that endorsed France's original regulatory response as "justified." The software update will be issued across all 27 EU member states "in the coming weeks," according to Apple.

When Apple rolled out the update in France, it did so despite disputing the regulators' testing method. Apple said the country's Agence Française Nationale des Fréquences (ANFR) regulatory group made an error when doing its radiation tests.

ANFR used a testing protocol that did not account for the ‌iPhone‌'s off-body detection mechanism, which Apple said had been "thoroughly tested and verified internationally to be an effective mechanism to comply with SAR requirements."

Apple maintained its position Monday that the French testing methodology was flawed. "We continue to disagree with the French ANFR's testing approach, (but) respect the European Commission's decision," Apple said in a statement. "Customers can use their iPhone 12 with full confidence, just as they always have."

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple to Curb iPhone 12 Radiation With EU-Wide Software Update
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/09/02/eu-order-apple-software-update-iphone-12-radiation/
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Why has the EU taken so long to change its laws and follow France?. Although this is small amounts, radiation is no joke. I guess endless red tape and bureaucracy? At least it seems Apple will be fairly quick releasing an update.
 
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What I don't understand is why all of this stuff is happening AFTER the model is on sale. When I make a piece of electronics for production, part of our production checklist is going through all regulatory processes for the regions it will be on sale. In the USA, that would include bodies such as the FCC and UL, but for anywhere else you're probably adding CE and some others.

🤷‍♂️
 
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Pezimak said:
Why has the EU taken so long to change its laws and follow France?. Although this is small amounts, radiation is no joke. I guess endless red tape and bureaucracy? At least it seems Apple will be fairly quick releasing an update.
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Why did it take the EU to force Apple to do the right thing? Why won't they do the right thing die people outside the EU?
 
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longofest said:
What I don't understand is why all of this stuff is happening AFTER the model is on sale. When I make a piece of electronics for production, part of our production checklist is going through all regulatory processes for the regions it will be on sale. In the USA, that would include bodies such as the FCC and UL, but for anywhere else you're probably adding CE and some others.

🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
It passed the initial tests.

Update to clarify timeline. The iPhone 12 was released in 2020 and passed all regulations in the EU (and worldwide). Then in 2023 France’s Agence Nationale des Fréquences (ANFR) did a re-testing of various phones and found the iPhone 12 "failed" one specific test (described below).

Back to the original comment.

Because of that, ANFR said Apple must stop or suspend sales of the iPhone 12 because their testing found that, when held against the body (0 mm distance, or "limb-SAR"), the device registered a SAR of 5.74 W/kg, exceeding the EU limit of 4 W/kg. Although the iPhone 12 passed other SAR tests (e.g., at 5 mm distance from the body), the “limb” test failure was enough to prompt regulatory action in France. This testing method is not something most other countries use, by the way.

What Apple does is have an “off-body detection” feature, which allows increased radio power when the device is stationary (e.g., on a table). The problem is that how ANFR tests, the phone senses that it's not being held close to a body and keeps the boosted signal. This means that ANFR’s test conditions did not reflect real world conditions (which isn't uncommon for many test conditions by agencies and companies). In other words, France’s protocol doesn’t permit that power boost (which helps with cell signal). It requires that transmit power stay within limb‑SAR limits even when off-body.

An analogy might be like this. France sets a country-wide limit on all speakers to never play louder than 55 dB (anything <70 should be completely safe for continuous, lifelong exposure). If someone is 30 meters away, the speaker has to be no louder than 55 dB. If someone has their ear on the speaker -- no louder than 55 dB.

That's essentially what ANFR is requiring with cell phone (non-ionizing) radiation -- a set completely safe level regardless of distance. Apple is objecting to that method but following the regulation; there was only so much Apple could do so it disabled that boosting feature in France. Now they are disabling it in the EU to keep things simpler.

A note about cell phones and health risks. The idea behind these tests and regulations is a possible link with brain cancer and potentially other health risks. However, even with the "failed" levels, we know the device’s elevated output remains well below levels associated with potential health harm. One of the claims that has popped up over the years is that cell phone use is associated with brain cancers. There have been some peer reviewed publications showing this but the bulk of published research and the best research shows no link. Even more, over the past 25 years there's been a huge increase in cell phone use but no clear increase in brain cancers: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412024005695
 
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Reason077 said:
Weird that they'd only just do this now, after the phone has been on the market for almost 5 years.

If the radiation levels from the iPhone 12 really are dangerous, then the damage has already been done.
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Any smartphone is dangerous per se.

People should be aware and not carry them in their pockets with constant wifi, bluetooth and cellular on since all of them are types of electromagnetic radiation, it is not even a fraction as ionizing as gamma rays (hence that’s why RF called “non-ionizing radiation”) for sure but it still can penetrate or heat human tissue to small extent, cannot be good.

Ideally Apple’s must make a sleep mode or a gentle reminder for user to turn off the phone at night and not keep it near head, not fall asleep with it and so on.

For same reason it is better to rely on wifi connectivity instead of cellular, wifi is kinda more controlled and doesn’t connect to various towers all-around.

Upd: typos
 
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