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The impact of long term exposure to cellphone radiation is still largely unknown, but all the evidence up until now lends credence to the fact that you probably have better things to worry about. San Francisco lawmakers disagree however, and a controversial new law that forced retailers to display radiation levels of different handsets has the CTIA pulling them into court. “The CTIA's objection to the ordinance is that displaying a phone's SAR value at the point-of-sale suggests to the consumer that there is a meaningful safety distinction between FCC-compliant devices with different SAR levels," it said in a statement.
According to CTIA officials the new law supersedes the FCC’s authority to regulate radio emissions, and is misleading for consumers who ultimately haven’t been properly educated as to what the SAR ratings actually mean. Some have been tempted to lump cellphone manufacturers in with the tobacco industry who lied to customers for years about the dangers of smoking, but this is a bit misleading as well. Independent labs have backed up the fact that cellphone radiation levels as they are mandated today are considered safe and in some cases might even be beneficial.
Only time will tell if the law will hold up in court, but at the end of the day perhaps it will encourage manufactures to voluntarily lower radiation levels. Studies show it probably won’t help, but it certainly can’t hurt.
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nadako
July 25, 2010 at 3:07pm
Stop flying because an hour of flighing gives flight attendents as much radiation as getting an xray... There is also another study that is saying that we dont know what is the right amounts of radiation for the body. Scientists dont know if the radiation graph is linear(as in straight diagnal line) or logrithic(Line that slowly increases then starts to sharply increase) or if the grah is something like a mix of logrithic/linear or logrithic,dips a little, then goes back to linear. Studies had also shown that people that live in higher places often have lower chances for cancer while people that live in a lower region will have a higher chance for cancer. I am going to have to refind that documentary again. It was very informative. It was like if radiation was truly bad then most flight attendents should have some kind of cancer. They also did some stuff with mice and found out that little doses of radiation turned on a cancer fighting gene.
Walnut
July 24, 2010 at 11:41pm
This sort of bullshit is becoming more and more typical of US politics. We've got science-illiterate politicians telling everyone how science works. It's bordering on comical.
Zachary K.
July 24, 2010 at 6:09pm
that law is just paranoid people trying to scare stupid people, everything gives you cancer now a days, cell phones, microwaves, anything with the word artificial in it, i don't believe any of it. I can't wait till everyone finds out how scared they have been for no reason.
Vano
July 24, 2010 at 4:25pm
I don't know about brain, but in my home town since I was a kid we had problems with cockroaches, I mean nobody could possibly get rid of them, they infested everywhere. Well, since about 5 years now, they pretty much gone and people believe it's due to cellphones, which about that time everyone started getting one instead of landline...go figure..
