Canada: 9 out of 10 Cell Phones Exceed Regulatory Limits in Real Use

Canada: 9 out of 10 cell phones exceed regulatory limits in real use
Equipe Phonegate 5 July 2022 - (view tables in original press release)

In March 2022 after two years of waiting, the Canadian agency, Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) sent to our contact, Sharon Noble, the list of test results of 90 smartphones whose SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) had been monitored between 2015 and 2021.

The SAR is an indicator supposed to protect the health of users. However, the Canadian agency had omitted to specify the SAR measurement distance between the cell phone and the body. We now understand why: according to new data (requested from the ISED, received in a letter on June 8, 2022), 9 cell phones out of 10 would far exceed the regulatory thresholds during real use of the phone in contact with the body.

In fact, during the SAR body measurement test, the contact distance was carried out at 10 mm from the skin for more than 80% of the phones tested and at 15 mm for 10% (tables below). This distance is completely unrealistic with our use, for example when a user keeps his/her phone in the pocket.

Canada lags far behind in protecting users’ health

Following an emergency measure presented in 2015 by France to the European Commission, Europe has since required cell phone manufacturers to measure body SAR at 5 mm from the skin.

This is the consequence of SAR tests conducted between 2012 and 2015 by the French telecom regulator (ANFR, National Frequency Agency), showing that 9 out of 10 cell phones already exceeded European regulatory thresholds when the body SAR was measured, either in contact with the skin (at 0 mm) or almost in contact (5 mm).

However, it was not until 2018 and the actions of Dr. Marc Arazi before the French administrative courts – as well as his revelations of the Phonegate scandal – that several hundred of these SAR test reports conducted by ANFR were finally made public. And it took another four years for the Canadian tests to be revealed (but still not made public in Canada).

Continue reading:

https://phonegatealert.org/en/canada-9-out-of-10-cell-phones-exceed-regulatory-limits-in-real-use