Almost half a year since the World Health Organisation (WHO) deemed mobile phones possibly carcinogenic, a group of scientists say the US government’s in-house testing obscured serious radiation dangers, ABC News reports. Why? The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) uses a 187cm, 100kg model as the average American.
Background radiation exposure increases cancer risks in anyone, but still-developing children are acutely more vulnerable — twice as vulnerable, in fact, claims the Environmental Health Trust, helmed by former Clinton White House appointee Dr Devra Davis. With a wide receiver representing the nation’s electromagnetic radiation-exposed handset users, children are squeezed out of the equation. The government also fails to check radiation exposure for typical phone resting areas like pants pockets, where handsets are nuzzled up against some particularly sensitive anatomy.
The Environmental Health Trust says the FCC needs to start testing phones based on the ways they’re used today — increasingly by children, and small enough to fit anywhere. This isn’t a cry of panic, but a call for more thorough science. [Environmental Health Trust via ABC News]
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