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 -

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Text more, talk less: Phones emit less radiation when sending text rather than voice communication.