By Caroline Woon
Daily Bruin Contributor
Speculation about health risks associated with using cellular
phones means manufacturers will have to be up front with consumers
about the level of radiation their devices emit.
Starting August 1, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry
Association, an organization that represents the wireless industry
and issues certification for its member companies, is requiring
cellular phone companies to submit radiation emission data, or risk
losing certification.
The information will begin to appear on the packaging of new
cell phones within the next three to six months, leaving
manufacturers and some experts worried about the misinterpretation
of radiation ratings by consumers.
“We have a high degree of confidence in the safety of our
products,” said Norman Sandler, a spokesman for Motorola,
Inc.
Sandler said cellular phones are already “designed, built
and tested” in order to meet Federal Communication Commission
certification standards.
“We report (this data) simply to show that we comply with
required limits, not to suggest that one phone is safer than
another,” Sandler said. “We take pains to discourage
people from drawing those kinds of conclusions. If there
isn’t any known health risk at the limit, there certainly
isn’t any below the limit.”
Travis Larson, a spokesman for the CTIA, said cell phone users
will have to be educated to interpret the new Specific Absorbed
Radiation emissions data in order to avoid misconceptions regarding
product safety.
According to Larson, the SAR rating is a cell phone’s
maximum output, but radiation levels could vary with the conditions
under which the phone is being used.
“Things such as battery power, proximity to the antenna,
and even the angle at which you hold the phone can all determine
SAR,” Larson said.
“We want consumers to understand this information.
Hopefully they’ll read the educational material we’ve
provided and they’ll see that the government has already said
that all of these phones are safe.”
Larson said the CTIA’s decision to make the publishing of
SAR data mandatory was based on this desire to keep cell phone
users informed, not to mislead them.
“All cell phones currently sold in the U.S. are already
certified, they already meet the standard. We simply want to put
this information in the hands of consumers and let them make their
own decisions,” Larson said.
In the meantime, scientific research on the dangers of using
cell phones has been inconclusive, and often contradictory.
“Some studies suggest that something might be there, while
others suggest that there is no correlation at all,” said
Chris Cagnon, a diagnostic medical physicist at the UCLA department
of radiology. “The best scientific knowledge we have to date
is that we simply don’t know.”
Cagnon and others say undue emphasis is now being placed on the
long-term effects of using cell phones, overshadowing its more
immediate dangers.
“By far, the biggest hazard of using a cell phone is
having an accident on the freeway, or being hit by a bus,”
Cagnon added. “No responsible person could argue that the
risk of anything else is higher.”
Jon Fernandez, a fourth-year economics student and cell phone
user agreed.
“Everybody is worried about whether or not their phones
are going to give them cancer, but most people out there have a
higher chance of dying in a car accident due to the use of cell
phones,” Fernandez said. “Do they really expose you to
any more radiation than the computer you sit in front of all day,
or the microwave you cook your food in?”