this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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Fair play to France. It's above legal levels, properly threatening tech giants is what they need to comply.
Frances is notable for being very strict about cell phone radiation. They require every phone sold to include a headset with mic, not for hand free driving, but because the government says that talking on the phone normally exposes your head to dangerous levels of radiation.
We have no evidence of health danger when it comes to wifi & co, but customers should be able to choose if they want the phone away from their head or not is more how I understand it. Consumers here are indeed well protected, it’s quite nice tbh
Apple stopped selling the iPhone 12 yesterday, not because of France’s regulations, but because it is so old that it has been bumped out of the line by the iPhone 13.
As for why
EMR radiation isn't the type that can cause cancer (which happens when the radiation wavelength is low enough to 'ionize' genetic material), but it can heat up tissue the same way a microwave might. With tissue heating, standards are likely set based on the risks / concerns that a country's health authority thought were reasonable enough. This might also vary depending on different parts of the body.
If they set a standard and a malfunction is causing the phone to exceed that limit, it's worth stopping sales so that it can be fixed.
Has there been any cause of RF leading to burns or fever? The idea that a cell phone could transfer enough energy to make even the slightest difference seems insane to me. I can't imagine it's physically possible for the health risk to be any worse than raising your thermostat by 1° would be.
This seems like nothing more than pandering to psuedoscientific quakery.