If Phones Are ‘Safe,’ Why Do They Tell You to Keep Your Distance?

If Phones Are ‘Safe,’ Why Do They Tell You to Keep Your Distance?

Did you know that your smart phone settings include a section that advises usage habits to reduce RF (radiofrequency) exposure?

This advice is included even though all smart phones proclaim that they are in compliance with the government’s SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) safety limits.

If the radiation emitted by cell phones was truly safe, why would they bother to tell you ways to reduce radiation exposure? Could it be because the SAR limits are outdated, and only address thermal (heating) effects of non-ionizing radiation exposure, and ignore the mounting evidence of harm from non-thermal mechanisms?

Let’s dive into this revealing topic that most people are unaware of, even though the majority of us are smart phone users.

You can check your own smart phone now. If you have an iPhone, just go into the Settings, then click General, and there should be a section called Legal and Regulatory. If you click that, and scroll all the way down, there should be a section titled RF Exposure. This may look slightly different on Android phones (like Samsung and Google Pixel), but you will find something similar if you investigate.

This section should display the results of the SAR test for your phone model, which of course will be within the “safe limits” for radiofrequency radiation exposure. If you have an iPhone, you may see something like this:

"To reduce exposure to RF energy, use a hands-free option, such as the built-in speakerphone, headphones or other similar accessories. Cases with metal parts may change the RF performance of the device, including its compliance with RF exposure guidelines, in a manner that has not been tested or certified."

Why advise reducing exposure, if the exposure level is already safe?

A Google Pixel phone we looked at, which tested at well within the SAR safety limits, even included this statement: “Keep the device away from your body to meet the distance requirement.”

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What distance requirement? The SAR tests state that when the phone is placed directly against the head, or within 5mm of the torso of the body (to simulate the phone being in a pocket with a thin layer of clothing in between the phone and your skin), that you are “safe”, according to standard tests.

The Samsung S21 smart phone fine print informs that their SAR distance for safety is 15 millimeters, which is equivalent to more than half an inch. Most people place their cell phones directly against their head when making calls, as they have never been informed to do otherwise. If a Samsung S21 phone user is making calls in this way habitually, the company’s own recommendation implies that the user may be exposed to unsafe levels of RF radiation on a regular basis. Yet, this is not widespread knowledge, and is only in the fine print that most people don’t know exists!

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Samsung also states, “Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) certification establishes a minimum recommended distance from a person’s body for safe operation of RF-emitting devices. Body-worn operations are restricted to belt-clips, holsters or similar accessories that have no metallic component in the assembly and must provide at least 1.5 cm (3/4 in.) separation between the device and the user's body.”

Did you ever hear any of this from a cell phone TV commercial or online advertisement? We certainly haven’t.

Pharmaceutical drugs are legally required to list their “fine print” of potential side effects, even on TV commercials. Why aren’t cell phone companies required to at least give you a brief warning about RF radiation exposure before you purchase their products, and suggest ways to reduce exposure?

It’s also important to note that having Wifi and Bluetooth enabled on your smart phone will significantly increase the RF radiation output of the device. Many people keep both of these turned on continuously or at least periodically, and do not consider the additional radiation exposure they may be getting, which may often be higher than the SAR safety limits.


The Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) limits are too high, and not healthy

Cell phone companies and the FCC seem to enjoy splitting hairs about the details of the SAR limits, and are quick to point out that the SAR test scores that phones list are at their maximum radiation output, implying that most usage is going to fall at far lower levels than the output listed on the test results.

If we’re going to argue at this level, it’s good to know that many phones may not actually be compliant at all, according to independent tests performed in 2019. If the cell phone company itself performs the tests, and the results can’t be replicated independently, then can we trust them in the first place?

However, let’s move past this type of nitpicking for now, and talk about why the SAR limits are inherently flawed and dangerous in the first place.

As stated earlier, the Specific Absorption Rate is only testing the thermal effects of cell phone radiation, meaning how much it heats localized tissue. That is the only mechanism of harm that the telecoms and FCC are willing to admit to. For a minute, let’s pretend that this is the only mechanism of harm. Even if that were true, there are significant flaws with the SAR safety limits.

The SAR safety limit was originally set in 1996 – 30 years ago. They modeled the body proportions of Army personnel, who are generally large, fully grown men, often around 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. This model does not come close to representing smaller and more developmentally vulnerable populations like children, teenagers and pregnant women. Grown men are generally the most resilient category of humans to toxic exposures of all types, whereas babies, children and developing embryos and fetuses are the most fragile. Babies and children have smaller heads, thinner skulls and rapidly developing brains that are highly vulnerable to harmful environmental influences, including wireless radiation.

The SAR rate that was set in 1996 has not been updated at all over the past 30 years, even as new cell phone technology and usage habits have evolved seemingly at light speed. The maximum distance that a phone could be tested at to achieve compliance was up to 25 millimeters, which is much further from the body than where today’s phone users keep their phones. The 25mm distance was set because in the ‘90s, people often carried their flip phones on belt clips, which were about an inch away from their body. Almost no one uses belt clips anymore, and most often, the phone is carried in a regular pocket, which is generally only 2mm away from body tissue, especially vulnerable reproductive organs like the ovaries and prostate. Guidelines have not been updated to reflect changing habits of users, nor have users been adequately warned of the potential harm of keeping their phone that close to the body.

There is also no consideration for long term exposure. Regulations are set based on immediate effects, with no thought for the many decades of consistent cell phone and other wireless radiation exposure that most modern people, especially young people, will experience in their lifetimes.

Regulations also do not acknowledge the fact that people generally no longer carry just one wireless device with them, but use multiple RF emitting devices regularly: cell phones, tablets, Bluetooth speakers and headphones, vehicle GPS devices that connect to Bluetooth, smart devices that connect to your smart phone, and much more. All of these sources multiply our RF exposure to levels that are currently unknown, and unacknowledged by official government and telecom industry sources.

We are stuck with the ancient 1996 SAR guidelines, which were created in a vastly different technological world than the one we live in today.


Thermal effects are not the only concern with wireless radiation

Lastly and most importantly, the SAR safety standards are based on the (proven erroneous) assumption that the thermal effect is the only way that cell phones can cause harm.

In the early 2000s, the National Toxicology Program, an arm of the U.S. Government’s National Institutes of Health, performed the largest, longest study on the health effects of cell phone radiation that had ever been done up to that point. Their stated intention for the study was to find out whether there were non-thermal health risks to cell phone use, since the only safety guidelines that existed at that point were the SAR safety limits, which were only based on thermal exposure risks.

This is an entire story in itself, but suffice to say that considerable harm related to cancer and DNA damage were found – results that were surprising to everyone involved in the study. After a brief period where a peer review panel of experts declared that the study was well performed and showed clear evidence of cancer and DNA damage, the government agencies involved subsequently pivoted in their opinion and decided that the study was NOT relevant to human exposure. If you haven’t yet read this whole story, you will want to, as it shows beyond any doubt how egregiously biased the United States government is towards siding with the telecom industry.

$30M National Toxicology Program Study Shows Cell Phone Radiation is Carcinogenic (full story)

The most important thing to realize is that science shows that non-ionizing radiofrequency radiation, at below-thermal levels, can be harmful to health. Whether or not a mechanism has been definitively recognized that accounts for this non-thermal harm, the harm itself has been documented in hundreds to thousands of studies, many of which you can read about here.

If you’re interested in purported mechanisms of non-thermal harm, the most probable theory at this time involves the voltage-gated ion channels of the body, and how external electrical signals trigger these highly sensitive voltage-mediated channels to flood various minerals (especially calcium) into the cells, triggering a cascade of unintended and unwanted effects. This mechanism has been extensively studied by Dr. Martin Pall, and has been discussed in at least a dozen of our other articles.

 

Don’t fall into the trap of blind trust – protect yourself

Ignorance of the truth won’t protect you. It is the fault of the government and telecom companies that it isn’t common knowledge that your daily wireless device usage may cause health issues over time. However, it is your responsibility to educate yourself, and to protect yourself as well as you can. Most people are not going to give up their cell phones entirely, but there are things you can do to significantly reduce your exposure:

  • Never carry your cell phone in your pocket, or anywhere against your body, unless it’s turned off, or set to airplane mode.

  • Never sleep with your cell phone near you, unless on airplane mode with Bluetooth and Wifi disabled, and even then be sure it’s at least a few feet away – definitely not under your pillow or near your head.

  • Never hold your phone up to your head when you talk. Instead, use speaker phone or an AirTube headset (which has a tube of air instead of wires all the way to your ears) to make calls.

  • Limit your childrens’ cell phone and tablet exposure, and be cautious during pregnancy and around babies.


To protect your body from any remaining radiation exposure, since you can’t control a lot of the RF exposure sources around you, be sure to protect your home with a stationary Blushield device of the appropriate strength for your overall EMF exposure levels, and carry a Blushield portable device with you anytime you’re on the go.

Blushield devices were demonstrated in a 2023 clinical study to calm overactivation of the voltage-gated calcium channels back to normal levels – VGCC overactivation is widely thought to be the primary mechanism of harm from EMFs, as we touched on earlier. A variety of other statistically significant health improvements were recorded, as well, showing that even if the mechanism of harm from non-thermal EMFs is more complex and nuanced than we currently know, that our EMF protection technology is broadly beneficial in regulating physiology back to a healthier state.

 

 



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