Last updated April 12, 2019
A government test that is used to determine the amount of radiation that people absorb via their new or old cell phones is flawed, according to a number of researchers and doctors. Experts from the Environmental Health Trust in the United States have released a report stating that the test, which is operated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is flawed and underestimates the level of radiation to which the majority of adults and children are actually exposed to by their cell phones.
The current test uses a mannequin model that approximates a human being who is around 6 foot and 2 inches tall, and weighs 220 pounds. This model is an accurate representation of only around three percent of the population, the researchers of the new report point out, and thus does not give an accurate prediction of the amount of radiation that the remaining 97 percent of the populace are being exposed to. The group is now pushing for the introduction of new radiation tests that would measure exposure in a larger range of consumers.
“The standard for cell phones has been developed based on old science and old models and old assumptions about how we use cell phones, and that’s why they need to change,” says one of the authors of the report, Dr. Devra Davis, a former senior adviser to the Department of Health and Human Services.