News Our Press Release 21 September 2022
Phonegate collaboration – info request regarding SAR
In cooperation with Dr. Marc Arazi, Phonegate Alert, Europeans for Safe Connections has written a letter to local telecom regulators. We ask if any test on specific absorption rate (SAR) of electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones, tablets and connected objects on bodies has been carried out. If tests have been carried out, we ask for all test reports to be sent to us and made public.
We advise as many countries as possible to send this letter to their local tele regulators. We will publish their answers.
The letter have been translated, sent and (some) answered in these countries:
- Belgium
- Czech Republic (already answered)
- Denmark (already answered)
- Deutschland + Austria (Austria answered)
- Estonia (already answered)
- France
- Greece
- Italy
- The Netherlands (already answered)
- Slovakia (already answered)
- Slovenia
- Sweden (already answered)
The text of the letter to be translated
To: name of national authority that verifies or should verify that the transmitting equipment in the market complies with the standards
From: your name or name of organisation, member of Europeans for Safe Connections
Date: xxx
Subject: Specific Absorption Rate tests
Dear Madam/Sir,
We are writing to you in the context of your responsibility as national telecom regulator for the transmitting devices on the market such as cell phones, tablets and other connected objects. In this capacity and in the framework of European regulations, you are responsible for the safety and health of people using these devices put on the market in our country.
We would therefore like to know whether your agency has carried out specific absorption rate (SAR) tests of electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones, tablets and connected objects on bodies (head, trunk and limbs), and if so, under what conditions (products supplied by the manufacturer or taken from a shop).
If tests have been carried out, we would like all test reports to be sent to us and made public.
In France, as early as July 2016, legal actions were set up, by Dr. Marc Arazi, founder of the NGO Phonegate Alert, resulting in the Agence nationale des fréquences (ANFR) publishing hundreds of SAR test reports that were made since 2012 without having been published. Since June 2018, an official DATA site has therefore allowed them to be listed. To date, more than 750 mobile phone SAR test reports are directly accessible to the public via this site.
Following these tests, thirty mobile phone models were considered non-compliant by the ANFR. Measures were therefore taken either to withdraw them from the market or to require the manufacturer to update the SAR value of its product by means of a software update.
We would therefore like to know whether these models, which are deemed to be non-compliant in France, have been the subject of particular attention from your services? And what measures have you taken to ensure consumer safety?
Following the revelations of these significant SAR limit violations, the French public authorities asked the health agency ANSES, to give its opinion on the possible related health risks. In a report published in October 2019, ANSES recommended to public authorities:
- To withdraw or update mobile phones placed on the market before June 2017 tested by ANFR with a SAR exceeding regulatory levels. This corresponds to more than 250 models.
- To test all SARs in direct contact with the skin, i.e. at 0 mm, and in particular the trunk SAR which is still measured at 5 mm.
We would like to know if you have been informed of the recommendations made by ANSES. And now that we have focused your attention on this recommendation, what do you intend to do, given that a large proportion of these models have been placed on the French national market and may be on the national market in our country.
Do you plan to perform SAR measurements yourself or in cooperation with other authorities, for mobile phones used on the national market in line with the recommendations of ANSES?
France has decided, in line with the recommendations made by ANSES, to lodge a formal objection with the European Commission to request a measurement on the trunk of the SAR at 0 mm. We would therefore like to know whether your agency is in favor of this request and would support the French proposal in the appropriate EU bodies?
This letter is written in cooperation with Dr. Marc Arazi, Phonegate Alert by Europeans for Safe Connections and has been sent to the European national telecom regulators.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Please allow us to contact you again if we do not receive a reply within one month.
Please send the answers to my email.
Kind regards,
Name
National, participant of Europeans for Safe Connections
Address information