Drugs,
bike helmets, credit card agreements, cigarettes, air bags, and guns, all come
with notices regarding safe uses and risks.
Without laws to enforce them, such warnings are basically a form of
product defense that allow manufacturers to say I told you so should any
problems develop later. But, where
warnings are accompanied by enforceable laws, they can fundamentally change
behavior. In fact, fewer kids try
smoking nowadays as a consequence of what's been a highly effective shock and
awe campaign including escalating cigarette taxes, massive public educational
programs (now slated for cuts), laws
that make it illegal to sell tobacco products to those under age 18, and a warnings
slapped directly on packaging.
But what are we to make of the fine print
advisories that come with new cell phones today that are seldom seen and even
less frequently heeded. Blackberry's
Torch phone cautions teenagers and pregnant women not to hold the phone next to
the lower abdomen. Apple's iPhone 5
features a Houdini-like warning--now you see it, now you don't. Printed warnings on thin paper package
inserts that advised safe distances for using phones have disappeared. Those determined to find out about cellphone
radiation enter a middle school programmers do-loop.
Advertisements in the blogosphere feature baby apps, with real live toddlers and infants who love their phones. Their parents do not know that that the 60,000 physicians and surgeons of the American Academy of Pediatrics have issued warnings that young brains and bodies need more lap time than app time and should avoid microwave radiating devices.
If you want information about radiation safety
and the iPhone, you can read the online product safety notice which says:
Radio signals iPhone uses radio signals to
connect to wireless networks. For information about the amount of power used to
transmit these signals, and about steps you can take to minimize exposure, see
Settings > General > About > Legal > RF Exposure.
Then, after going through the above 5 clicks on
your phone, the text below pops up:
iPhone has been tested and
meets applicable limits for Radio Frequency (RF) exposure.
Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) refers to the rate at which the body absorbs RF
energy. SAR limits are 1.6 Watts per Kilogram (over a volume containing a mass
of 1 gram of tissue) in countries that follow the United States FCC limit and
2.0 W/Kg (averaged over 10 grams of tissue) in countries that follow the
Council of the European Union limit. During testing, iPhone radios are set to
their highest transmission levels and placed in positions that simulate use
against the head, with no separation, and near the body, with 10 mm separation.
To reduce exposure to RF energy, use a hands-free option, such as the built-in
speakerphone, the supplied headphones, or other similar accessories. Carry
iPhone at least 10 mm away from your body to ensure exposure levels remain at
or below the as-tested levels. 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 testified or certified.
SAR values for this device are available online:
Thus, ends the advice. But, wait there's a trick. If at this point, you have not given up and
click on the above link purporting to be information on SAR values, you get
right back to this text:
To reduce
exposure to RF energy, use a hands-free option, such as the built-in
speakerphone, the supplied headphones or other similar accessories. Carry
iPhone at least 10mm away from your body to ensure exposure levels remain at or
below the as-tested levels. 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.
What's missing altogether is this previous statement on the phone that explained that phones carried in the pocket can exceed the FCC exposure guidelines. Poor David Beckham has no idea that his convenient phone necklace exceeds FCC approved testing conditions.
In fact, commercials for cell phones that fill
our airwaves, newspapers and magazines routinely feature young children happily
chatting with their phones held smack up against their developing bodies and
brains and iPads plopped directly over young gonads. 
Child holding iPhone on body over reproductive organs by Toys R Us Advertisement
It may
well be legal for companies to sell devices that cannot be used safely in ways
they are advertised, but it is certainly not ethical to do so.
When it comes to defining the right to know
about this public health risk, San Francisco has been at the leading edge. Outgunned and outspent, the city's legal
department has stood its ground on the fundamental right to require phone
sellers to tell the truth and inform people about ways to reduce their risks
from cellphone radiation--now found in fine print warnings or online manuals. After two years of prolix litigation, the
court has agreed with industry: the right to free speech does not apply to
city officials concerned with public health, because this violates industry's
free speech by compelling them to disclose the need to use precautions with
cellphones before they buy them,
rather than allowing this information to be freed from the bowels of the
internet.
Almost two years ago Finland's Radiation and
Nuclear Safety Authority joined agencies in Britain, India and Israel in warning
that regular use of cell phones could damage children's brains. Recent expert talks to Finland's National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health featured experts discussing growing evidence that cellphone radiation can harm sperm and pregnancy.France has now
banned the marketing or design of cell phones for the young. Yet, in the U.S. we continue to promote young
children using special toddler phones, despite the reservations of the American
Academy of Pediatrics about the use of phones and other electronic devices with
the young brain and their request to the FCC to revamp standards.
