iPhone hammers BlackBerry in radiation emission survey

Jonny Evans
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September 16, 2009
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In the smartphone wars Apple's iPhone can claim to be far, far healthier than Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices, at least in terms of radiation...

The latest report from the US Environmental Working Group (EWG) contains radiation rankings for top brand mobile phones, including those from Motorola, BlackBerry and iPhone. And the report makes grim reading for RIM, with handsets from that firm joining those from Motorola and T-Mobile (US) in the top ten worst phones in terms of radiation exposure.

To be fair, all models tested are within current international limits, but the EWG warns that consumers should try to buy phones with the lowest level of radiation emission, to be on the safe side.
 

The test measures the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) for different handsets. SAR is a means by which the amount of radiation passed from a device to a human body is assessed. The internationally-accepted safe limit of exposure to the head and trunk of a body is SAR 2W/Kg. Some say this should be set lower.

It’s not all good news for Apple - the iPhone 3G secured a maximum score of 1.19 W/kg, putting the device outside the top ten least ‘radiating’ phones. However, news is worse for the competition: the ten devices with the highest radiation levels are:

1. Motorola MOTO VU204 - 1.55 W/kg
2. T-Mobile myTouch 3G - 1.55 W/kg
3. Kyocera Jax S1300 - 1.55 W/kg
4. Blackberry Curve 8330 - 1.54 W/kg
5. Motorola W385 - 1.54 W/kg
6. T-Mobile Shadow - 1.53 W/kg
7. Motorola C290 - 1.53 W/kg
8. Motorola i335 - 1.53 W/kg
9. Motorola MOTO VE240 - 1.52 W/kg
10. Blackberry Bold 9000 - 1.51 W/kg

And the ten devices with the lowest radiation levels are:

1. Samsung Impression (SGH-a877) - 0.35 W/kg
2. Motorola RAZR V8 - 0.36 W/kg
3. Samsung SGH-t229 - 0.38 W/kg
4. Samsung Rugby (SGH-a837) - 0.46 W/kg
5. Samsung Propel Pro (SGH-i627) - 0.47 W/kg
6. Samsung Gravity (SGH-t459) - 0.48 W/kg
7. T-Mobile Sidekick - 0.50 W/kg
8. LG Xenon (GR500) - 0.52 W/kg
9. Motorola Karma QA1 - 0.55 W/kg
10. Sanyo Katana II - 0.55 W/kg

Via: The Ecologist

Comments (6)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 16, 2009 - 5:34am

I'd be curious to know what the reception in real world tests would be like high radiation vs low radiation. My money is on the phones with higher levels of radiation have better reception.

9to5Mac Loyalist (not verified) | September 16, 2009 - 7:47am

I suspect the higher wattage is due to the usage of the devices. iPhone has HAD to put power efficiency as a priority, since it's used so much, and doesn't have a replaceable battery. However, you'll note that the majority of the highest emitters on this list are all smart phones. I imagine radiation increases DRAMATICALLY when in talk mode, and doubly-so when in data-transfer mode or doing serious computational work. Fortunately, when doing the other two, you generally have the phone further away from your body.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 16, 2009 - 7:56am

manufacturers are completely aware their products cause cancer/tumors. i love miphone (use it all the time), but try to use headphones as much as possible, leaving miphone in my pocket. hope i'll still be able to have kids.
:|

Punchinello (not verified) | September 16, 2009 - 9:33am

There's a body of thinking that headphones, through induction, act as a waveguide for RF directly from the phone chassis to the inside of the ear.

Earphones may not be the RF barrier one might think.

slappy (not verified) | September 16, 2009 - 10:45am

What kind of superpowers will I get from cellphone radiation exposure?

ratGT (not verified) | September 16, 2009 - 5:44pm

Without any second thoughts, your comment is undoubtly one of the best ones I've read the past year, throught most Mac sites!
As for the super-powers u gain, the only ones that I'm aware of are the pick-up of conversational waves fron mibile connections and that you'll b able to reffer to someone with music (ring)tones (which haz been synced from ur iPhone ur body), instead of calling-out their names.