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

[JonneyGee]

Maybe if a toaster runs 24 hours a day next to your body.

Too bad a toaster doesn’t have a sensor to detect if it’s next to your body and adjust the amount of radiation it gives off accordingly.

It’s non-ionizing radiation anyway. The iPhone 12 is completely safe.

 

[gmarm]

iPhone 12 models represent 8.4% of iPhones in use. https://telemetrydeck.com/survey/apple/iPhone/models/

Huh, that's quite a lot, wow. I stand corrected then!

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

Phones do not emit ionizing radiation (the bad radiation). Your toaster, pet, car, and light bulbs emit radiation. An FM radio station will put out 100,000 watts.

Don't forget microwave ovens. Funny story, years ago when my cat was dying of cancer I was microwaving his wetfood, and my sister-in-law said "oh you shouldn't do that, it's not healthy." "why's that?" I asked. "Because radiation causes free radicals, causes canc---". Once she realized that I wasn't worried about my poor cancer ridden getting cancer, she felt suffiently stupid so I didn't feel like lecturing her about how microwaves are non-ionizing and can not cause free radicals... but I should have.

 

[Alameda]

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.

Oh? Is there scientific evidence that non-ionizing radiation is harmful to health?

 

[Alameda]

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

Do you believe that the heat from a cell phone can damage human tissue?

 

[uacd]

Do you believe that the heat from a cell phone can damage human tissue?

Since there are still regulations on safe limits, probably that’s true. To be honest I don’t know what I believe, but I stay on the safe side.

However I understand that back in the days people didn’t need or use their phones as often as now. Phones or even computers had one place where they were stationed, and their signal was relatively stable and not like nowadays when phones connect to various cellular towers.

To me, cellular connections are completely useless to be on for full 24 hours, not only they are the ones responsible for “heat tissue” side effects, but also they drain battery. It was ok when we all had Nokias and poor, expensive cellular internet and lack of decent instant messaging apps.

Nowadays we are surrounded by FaceTime, iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram and so on, i.e. apps that work on wifi much better than on any cellular.

So while turning off phone at night can be overkill, it is worth to put phone on airplane mode to disable cellular module - useless battery drain and additional, unneeded RF exposure

 

[Alameda]

Since there are still regulations on safe limits, probably that’s true. To be honest I don’t know what I believe, but I stay on the safe side.

However I understand that back in the days people didn’t need or use their phones as often as now. Phones or even computers had one place where they were stationed, and their signal was relatively stable and not like nowadays when phones connect to various cellular towers.

To me, cellular connections are completely useless to be on for full 24 hours, not only they are the ones responsible for “heat tissue” side effects, but also they drain battery. It was ok when we all had Nokias and poor, expensive cellular internet and lack of decent instant messaging apps.

Nowadays we are surrounded by FaceTime, iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram and so on, i.e. apps that work on wifi much better than on any cellular.

So while turning off phone at night can be overkill, it is worth to put phone on airplane mode to disable cellular module - useless battery drain and additional, unneeded RF exposure

Receiving RF emits nothing, only transmitting.

 

[uacd]

Receiving RF emits nothing, only transmitting.

Indeed, and that’s why battery drains: so as much often there is a bad signal or if iPhone often changes the tower it connects to, the higher is RF

 

[Alameda]

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.

You realize this is about non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation?

Light is also non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation. We are constantly surrounded by non-ionizing radiation from the sun, WiFi routers, Bluetooth devices, cell towers, TV and AM/FM radio broadcasts, and on and on. There’s no proof that it’s harmful, other than excessive UV.

 

[Reason077]

Light is also non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation. We are constantly surrounded by non-ionizing radiation from the sun, WiFi routers, Bluetooth devices, cell towers, TV and AM/FM radio broadcasts, and on and on. There’s no proof that it’s harmful, other than excessive UV.

It’s (presumed) harmless because the energy you receive from those sources is typically very tiny. But you wouldn’t want to put your brain right next to a high-power radio transmitter for any length of time for the same reason you don’t want to stick your head in a microwave.

That’s why there are exposure limits. Apple might argue the limits are too low or the test methodology is flawed with regard to the iPhone 12, but nevertheless it’s a good thing they exist.