The men in the lead pajamas are going to be investigating after the Chicago Tribune tested several smartphones for radiofrequency (RF) radiation. The newspaper discovered something that might be alarming; RF radiation emanating from the Apple iPhone 7 not only exceeded the legal safety limit, it also was double the amount of radiation that Apple’s own testing showed that the device leaked. That is based on filings with federal regulators made by the company.
The Tribune points out that the FCC states on its website that any handset approved for sale will never exceed the maximum level of radiation exposure that is considered safe. However, four iPhone 7units were tested by the Tribune and all of them leaked radiation over that level. The FCC responded to the Tribune’s data by stating that it would begin conducting its own tests over the next two months.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 had the worse score of handsets measured 2mm away
The Tribune tested 11 different phones including the iPhone 7, iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S9, Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy J3, Moto E5 Play, Moto G6 Play, Moto E5 and the BLU Vivo 5 Mini. The phones were each tested to see the amount of RF radiation that leaked 2mm, 5mm, 10mm and up to 15mm away. The 2mm test was done to simulate how much radiation a person might receive if they placed their phone in a shirt or pants pocket. The Tribune says that at that distance, most of the devices it tested exceeded the RF radiation limits by a large amount. The Tribune recommends that smartphone owners refrain from carrying their handsets in a pocket. Because the standards for testing handsets for RF radiation were created in the 1990s when people wore them on a belt clip, the FCC allows new phones to be tested for radiation from a distance as far as 25mm away.
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