Phonegate Association Update: List of mobile phones with non-compliant SARs removed or updated in France
Phonegate Alert List updated as of October 1, 2020
To date, 24 different mobile phone models have either been withdrawn from the French market or have had their Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) software updated. The last smartphone tested with a 3.48 W/kg trunk SAR is the Nokia 7 Plus . The manufacturer HMD GLOBAL OY received a financial penalty of 7,500 euros.
This information is from Phonegate Alert. Please see it online here and please sign up for updates at Phonegate Alert.
Click here to download the list.
What is Phonegate?
After a court filing, the National Frequency Agency (ANFR) of France disclosed that most cell phones exceed government radiation limits when tested the way they are used, next to the body. Manufacturers are not required to test phones in shirt or pants pockets. French government tests on hundreds of cell phones reveal that in 2015, 9 out of 10 phones exceed the manufacturer’s reported radiation test levels when re-tested in positions where the phone is in contact with the body. The government had refused to disclose these test results until pressure after the court action. On June 1, 2017, ANFR posted the details of the make, model and test results for each phone that was tested, after months of legal action by French physician Dr. Marc Arazi. Arazi’s request for the information was initially denied.
Ricocheting in headlines throughout France, Arazi and his colleagues have coined the situation as “PhoneGate” because of the parallels to “Diesel Gate” – the Volkswagen emissions saga. Devra Davis, PhD, President of Environmental Health Trust explained, “Volkswagen cars passed diesel emission tests when tested in laboratory conditions, but when the cars were driven on real roads, they emitted far more fumes. In the same way, every one of these cell phones ‘passed’ laboratory radiation SAR tests. These phones are legally considered compliant. However, when these phones are tested in the ways that people actually use them in real life, such as in your jeans pocket or bra, the amount of absorbed radiation emissions in our bodies violates the regulatory limits.” A Peer reviewed published paper by Professor Om Gandhi examined ANFR data from ANFR phone tests and found phones can emit 11 times over the US FCC limit and 3 times over French limits in 9 out of 10 phones tested. Read press release.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://ehtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/List-of-French-cell-phone-exceeding-SAR-limits-Aug-update.pdf”]
