By Dr Vishal Rao U S
Since the World Health Organization's report that cell phones may cause cancer in humans, there has been a lot of talk about how to keep yourself safe. The FCC has always used what's called a Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) score to track how much radio frequency (RF) from each phone is absorbed by the human body.
Specific absorption rate (SAR) is a measure of the rate at which energy is absorbed by the human body when exposed to a radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic field.The highest SAR score the FCC allows is 1.6 watts per kilogram.
You can know your cell phone's SAR value from websites such as http://sarvalues.com/ or http://www.gsmarena.com
A Few tips that may help to reduce the radition exposure to your Body / Head as recommended by Environmental Working Group -
- Use a headset or speaker : Choose either wired or wireless. If you go wireless make sure to take your headset out of your ear when you’re not on a call. Use your phone in speaker mode.
- When in use, hold the phone away from your body : Why? The amount of radiation absorbed by your head and body decreases dramatically with even a small distance. Don’t put the phone in your pocket or clip it to your belt, even when using your headset.
- Call when the signal is strong : Fewer signal bars mean the phone must try harder to broadcast its signal. Research shows that radiation exposure increases dramatically when cell phone signals are weak.
- Don’t store your phone in your pocket (or under your pillow): When a phone is on and not in use, it still sends out an intermittent signal to connect with nearby cell phone towers, which means radiation exposure is still happening.
- Text more, talk less: Phones emit less radiation when sending text rather than voice communication.