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EXPERT REACTION: France stops iPhone 12 sales due to radiation level concern

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France has temporarily stopped the sale of the iPhone 12 due to concerns the device does not comply with European radiation regulations. The French regulator, L’Agence nationale des fréquences (ANFR) has asked Apple to withdraw the iPhone 12 from the French market as of September 12, 2023, after their tests showed the device exceeded EU limits of a measure known as the specific absorption rate (SAR). The SAR measurement looks at the levels of electromagnetic radiation your body might receive if you held the phone in your hand or in a trouser pocket, and should be below a SAR of 4W/kg. The ANFR says the test measured the SAR at 5.74 W/kg.

Organisation/s: Australian Science Media Centre

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Expert Reaction

These comments have been collated by the Science Media Centre to provide a variety of expert perspectives on this issue. Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Views expressed are the personal opinions of the experts named. They do not represent the views of the SMC or any other organisation unless specifically stated.

Associate Professor Ken Karipidis is the Health Impact Assessment Assistant Director at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA)

Many of the internationally recognised safety limits, including Australia and France’s, are set at conservative levels, well below where harm is expected to occur. Australia and France impose the same safety limits on the energy that is absorbed by the body from a mobile phone.

While it’s not ideal, and we do not condone safety breaches, there should be no immediate danger from exposure slightly above the limit. Health effects may occur from exposure to radio waves, namely body tissue heating. But this would occur at levels much higher than the safety limit.

In Australia, the Australian Communications and Media Authority regulates the exposure from mobile phones and is responsible for any matters of compliance.

Last updated: 05 Nov 2024 12:07pm
Declared conflicts of interest:
Ken is also a member of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection’s (ICNIRP) Main Commission. ICNIRP produced the guidelines which many countries, including France and Australia, have adopted into their radio wave exposure safety limits.
Professor Rodney Croft is Chief Investigator at the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research and Professor of Health Psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Wollongong

Although it was reported by French authorities that exposure from the iPhone 12 is not compliant with their regulations, it is important to note that this will not have any impact on health.

The international guidelines that the French regulations are based on (ICNIRP, 2020) specify that adverse health effects of this type of exposure have not been demonstrated below 40 W/kg, whereas the exposure level from the iPhone 12 was only reported to be 5.7 W/kg (i.e., 1.7 W/kg higher than the ICNIRP 2020 limit of 4 W/kg).

The maximum exposure that the iPhone 12 can produce is thus many times lower than would be required to cause any harm. To put the exposure level into context, 5.7 W/kg would only cause a temperature rise in the limbs of less than 1°C, and only in a very localised region; this is far less than normal temperature variation during the day.

Last updated: 14 Sep 2023 12:33pm
Declared conflicts of interest:
Rodney is Chair of the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection

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