Chicago Tribune Claims iPhone Radiofrequency Radiation Levels Measured Higher Than Legal Safety Limit in Tests

[BigMcGuire]

Put your head in a microwave oven and tell me it's a non-issue.

1000-1500 watts vs 5-10 watts?

Edit: I guess .5 watts. LOL

#65 (citing post 65 below).

 

[I7guy]

Not sure putting bluetooth transceivers in your ears is better. The car is definitely likely to decrease exposure. The energy falls off as as the square of distance, thus the concern with BT.

I view BT as the lesser of two evils. I know there are those who don’t hold the phone near their chest or between their legs.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

I think you missed the sarcasm

Ah...I gotcha. My apologies!
[doublepost=1566418393][/doublepost]

Has there been any definite proof that RF from phones is harmful?

The whole POINT of a radio transmitter is to emit radiation, and the more radiation emitted, the better the signal:noise ratio will be. Better performing transmitters will output more power.

It's all moot if the radiation is harmless, though; scientifically speaking non-ionizing radiation can't hurt you at such low power levels.

Wait for 5G though...also, people who live right under cell towers...

 

[StyxMaker]

And you guys told me that my tinfoil hat is useless...

Just make sure that it’s really tinfoil, aluminum foil wont work.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

Sarcasm going over someone’s head will never get old on these forums, haha.

I'm just here to entertain. hahahaha!

 

[EfratBarTal]

That’s another year with the 8+ for me!

 

[quietstormSD]

Anyone using an iPhone 7 should have upgraded to a newer iPhone by now.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Because of course the Chicago Tribute found issues that UL and the FCC didn't...

I'm highly skeptical. It's possible but I want to see their findings replicated.

I bet the lawsuits come before their experiment is duplicated elsewhere though

 

[wigby]

Apple’s right in their statement, they’re FCC certified so they were subjected to these tests before being approved. I’d like another independent third party to do their own tests.

The Chicago Tribune is that 3rd party you're asking for. The problem is that they have no scientific credentials or valid methodology that Apple engineers and FCC engineers do have.

 

[Bigsk8r]

No one here will care but I have actually worked in the SAR field and have observed these tests being done. This story is almost certainly ginned-up for clicks. There is a specific methodology that must be applied consistently for the results to make sense. By their own admission, they deviated from the international standard. Phones are tested before they are released and tested again afterwards throughout their availability. Click bait.

This.

I have been an EMI/EMC Engineer for 22 years. The company I work for provides over 60% of the specialized test chambers and equipment that Apple, Google, Samsung, HuaWei and others use to test their phones.

In an era when almost no one talks with the phone actually on their ear anymore, this is a pointless article. And based on pure methodology and measurement uncertainty, this is yellow journalism, writ large.

Gotta love that Chicago situational ethic.

 

[bstpierre]

Isn't it obvious? They're holding it wrong.

I came to the comments section specifically looking for this comment and I was not disappointed!

 

[schlitzz]

but even if held at arm's length you've still got to hold the damn thing. So the distance from your hand, which is your body by the way, is zero mm. Poor hand. I guess we're gunna find out how hazardous this all is 40 years from now when long term exposure shows us what happens.

NO MORE CARRYING AN IPHONE IN YOUR POCKET WHILE ITS ON GUYS. Turn the damn thing off

Yeah, some of them have lost 2", or more. Might wanna start turning the bedroom lights off beforehand.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Curious why the iPhone was tested at 2mm and 5mm but the Samsung phones were tested at 2mm and 10mm (or 15mm). Shouldn’t these tests be standardized in some way?

Also, does the FCC test devices themselves or do the manufacturers test them and provide their results to the FCC (which accepts them and maybe spot checks random samples to verify the manufacturer numbers)?

Samsung chose that distance:

all phones were positioned at the same distance from the simulated body tissue that the manufacturers chose for their own tests

it's unknown why.

 

[realtuner]

This.

I have been an EMI/EMC Engineer for 22 years. The company I work for provides over 60% of the specialized test chambers and equipment that Apple, Google, Samsung, HuaWei and others use to test their phones.

In an era when almost no one talks with the phone actually on their ear anymore, this is a pointless article. And based on pure methodology and measurement uncertainty, this is yellow journalism, writ large.

Gotta love that Chicago situational ethic.

No one here will care but I have actually worked in the SAR field and have observed these tests being done. This story is almost certainly ginned-up for clicks. There is a specific methodology that must be applied consistently for the results to make sense. By their own admission, they deviated from the international standard. Phones are tested before they are released and tested again afterwards throughout their availability. Click bait.

Both of you stop immediately. There’s no place here for actual engineers familiar with these types of tests. We need the regular forum experts to tell us how evil Apple is for making us all unsafe by exposing us to Chernobyl levels of radiation.
[doublepost=1566419807][/doublepost]

From the source article:
"In one phase of the Tribune testing, all phones were positioned at the same distance from the simulated body tissue that the manufacturers chose for their own tests — from 5 to 15 millimeters, depending on the model. Apple, for instance, tests at 5 millimeters."


The 2mm was the Tribune's standard distance for all phones.

It’s not a standard if manufacturers can specify my their own test parameters. This isn’t like IP ratings for phones.

 

[Bigsk8r]

Both of you stop immediately. There’s no place here for actual engineers familiar with these types of tests. We need the regular forum experts to tell us how evil Apple is for making us all unsafe by exposing us to Chernobyl levels of radiation.

Should I also refrain from telling everyone that there hasn't been a phone built with a transmitter larger than 0.5 Watts in nearly 10 years? Or that 1.1 Watts per kilogram refers to total absorbed RF energy over time resulting in heat, which does not equal RF power?

You're right... no room for that science nonsense here. My bad. Please forgive me!

 

[Rob_2811]

This.

I have been an EMI/EMC Engineer for 22 years. The company I work for provides over 60% of the specialized test chambers and equipment that Apple, Google, Samsung, HuaWei and others use to test their phones.

In an era when almost no one talks with the phone actually on their ear anymore, this is a pointless article. And based on pure methodology and measurement uncertainty, this is yellow journalism, writ large.

Gotta love that Chicago situational ethic.

Just not true is it...

 

[nsayer]

Folks, this is non-ionizing radiation. The only demonstrable mechanism for biological interaction is polar molecule spin induction, and it takes much more power than a phone can produce to do a meaningful amount of that.

 

[ThirteenXIII]

Apple's response:

 

[mytdave]

The electromagnetic radiation emanating from your iPhone is a minuscule fraction of the radiation dose you get by stepping into the sunshine, or from that broadcast TV antenna down the block from your apartment, which is belting out EM waves measured in megawatts. Your phone will not kill you or give you cancer or scramble your brain - all urban legends.

 

[smaffei]

You're testing it WRONG!

 

[entropys]

Five years later, 500M men & women discover they can't RE-produce !

Apple this is UN-acceptable !

Please don’t bring those parasites at the United Nations into this.

And I miss the old Royal Exchange (the RE) since I moved to the other side of town.

 

[konqerror]

1000-1500 watts vs 5-10 watts?

Edit: I guess .5 watts. LOL

#65 (citing post 65 below).

A microwave oven isn't 1500 watts either. You have to divide the IEC watts rating by roughly half. (It's due to the fact they couldn't measure magnetron power directly back in the day)

Anyway as I said, the estimated safety margin of IEEE standards is 10-50x. There's a margin but it's not totally harmless and thousands of times as posters here believe.

 

[CaTOAGU]

"Smartphones from Samsung, Motorola, and Vivo were also tested, and most of these also demonstrated radiofrequency radiation levels that exceed FCC guidelines in The Chicago Tribune's testing."

This is the most telling part of this story. Something's not right. Either all manufacturers allow their phones to slip over the limit, or the testing conditions may not be correct.

Yeah, I was gonna say the same. The fact they're all failing definitely points to something wrong with the test set up. Unless they're all finding a way to cheat the FCC tests, but there's no evidence that that's the case. So, all things being equal, I'm gonna go with a testing error.

 

[Rickinsav]

I either use AirPods or my cars built in BT. Not only is it better in reducing the SAR it’s also better than holding the phone to your ears.

As far as the test result, reproducing the test means reproducing the test exactly.

That's what VW said....

 

[Tofupunch]

Wait, these guidelines of 10mm or 5mm away from the body is while using it to make phone calls, or just...always??