Safety Guide for Cell Phone Users

What's a consumer to do?

If you're trying to figure out how to diminish whatever radiation might be generated by your cell, consider some basic facts.

The radio frequency (RF) waves from cell phones come from the antenna, which is built into hand-held phones. Potentially harmful waves are strongest at the antenna, losing energy as they travel away from the phone.

The American Cancer Society says many factors can affect the amount of RF energy to which a person is exposed, including time spent on the phone.

Also See: Is Your Cell Phone's Radiation Level Safe? Don't Call the FCC

Another is the distance and path to the nearest cell phone tower. The farther away from a tower the caller is, the more energy required to get a good signal. The same holds true when inside a building combined with the amount of cell phone traffic in the area at the time.

How do you determine how much radiation comes from your phone?

There are ways for consumers to determine how much radiation is emitted from a particular phone. Each manufacturer is required to list specific absorption rates (SAR) -- a measure of how much radiation is absorbed by the body when the phone is sending a signal to the network.

To reach SAR, the Federal Communications Commission in 1996 took the industry suggested maximum permissible exposure level of 1.6 watts per kilogram of body weight as the maximum allowable.

(All you get from trying to figure out where the 1.6 limit comes from is a headache. SAR information is supposed to be listed somewhere on the phone -- usually inside the battery compartment.)

It might be easier to visit the Environmental Working Group (EWG) website, which lists the SAR of most popular phones.

According to the National Cancer Institute, different phones give off different amounts of energy; it's wise to purchase a low-radiation model.

Remember, the FCC cautions consumers that "a single SAR value does not provide sufficient information about the amount of RF exposure to reliably compare individual cell phone models."

The EWG suggests these safeguards:

• Use a headset, the phone's speaker or a system wired into your car's radio.
• Listen more, talk less. Your phone emits radiation when you talk or text but not when you're receiving messages. Listening more and talking less reduces your exposure.
• If you can, text rather than talk into your phone.
• If the signal is weak, don't use the phone; more RF waves are emitted by trying to acquire a working signal.

Almost everyone outside the industry agrees that cell phone use by children should be limited. A child's brain absorbs twice as much cell phone radiation as an adult's.

For a list of international studies on cell phone hazards, click here.