According to a new report by the Environmental Health Trust, the Federal Communications Commission’s test to measure cellphone radiation is flawed making our actual exposure up to 10 times higher than current limits.

The trust’s report, titled “Exposure Limits: The underestimation of absorbed cellphone radiation, especially in children,” charges that the industry-designed process so under-estimates the actual absorption of cellphone radiation that all cellphone users who keep their cellphone in their pockets absorb cellphone radiation above the FCC exposure limit. Further, even if not kept in pockets, when held next to the head, 97% of the population will exceed the certified level of absorbed radiation, and even more so for children who will absorb more than two times the certified cellphone radiation.

The Trust believes the current exposure limits are flawed because the certification process uses a single “test model”--a plastic mannequin head of a very large man. The head is filled with a liquid which assumes all tissues in the head are identical. A robot positions a sensor within the liquid and calculates the maximum Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) with a tolerance of +30%. The FCC exposure limit is SAR=1.6 Watts per kilogram of tissue. Because of the wide tolerance range, SAR values can be 30% higher than FCC exposure limit.

As the adult male test model represents only about 3 percent of the population, the authors report, the test will not accurately predict the radiation exposure of the other 97 percent of the population, including children. And, as many people carry their cellphones near their waist, the current test model doesn’t consider the affect of radiation on other tissues and organs in this region.

A far better system, they say, is an FCC approved process already used extensively within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The alternative process uses MRI-scans of a set of real human beings to determine the amount of radiation absorbed in every tissue. It is called, the “Virtual Family” and includes a 5-year old girl, a 6-year old boy, an 8-year old girl, an 11-year old girl, a 14-year old boy, a 26-year old female, a 35-year old male, an obese male adult and 3 pregnant women at 3rd, 7th and 9th months of gestation, allowing for appropriate cellphone certifications for the most vulnerable cellphone users.

Because billions of young children and adults with heads smaller than the current test model are now using cellphones extensively, and because they absorb proportionally greater cellphone radiation, the report states that it is “essential and urgent that governments around the world revise approaches to setting standards for cellphone radiation, to include sufficient protection of children.”

The Environmental Health Trust is a non-profit organization whose scientists have investigated environmental hazards such as asbestos, tobacco smoke and radiation from medical diagnostic equipment. The report authors include three Trust members: Devra Davis, PhD, MPH, former senior adviser in the Department of Health and Human Services under the Clinton administration, Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and Om Gandhi, a former scientist for Motorola who first performed the research establishing acceptable radiation risk.

Cause for concern?

Whether the radiation from cellphones actually causes cancer or other harmful effects is a question that has yet to be answered. Some studies have found a link between cellphone use and reduced sperm counts in men. Another study found a slight increased risk of a rare form of brain cancer called glioma among cellphone users. We do know that even a short cellphone call can cause increased brain activity for up to two hours later. Whether this causes any harm is unknown.

Until we have consensus, the medical and research community seem to suggest that we exercise caution. You can reduce your exposure to cell-phone radiation by keeping your cellphone away from your head and body by using an earpiece or speaker mode. To learn more about your real risks, check out a recent CNCA newsletter:  Do EMFs from Cell Phones Cause Cancer.

Sources:

ABC News - Good Morning America

Environmental Health Trust

Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine