Christmas presents? – BfS informs about low-radiation smartphones and tablets

In the past, people got cold feet during while Christmas gift shopping involved being cold in the past, nowadays many people do their Christmas gift shopping from the comfort of their sofas – thank to tablets, smartphones and high-speed internet access. But how about radiation exposure? If you want to reduce your individual radiation exposure, make sure the device you buy has a low SAR value. The Federal Office for Radiation Protection (Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz) published SAR values for more than 2,500 mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Mobile technology has developed rapidly within a few years. While mobile phones initially only offered the possibility to make phone calls, the new devices enable a variety of further applications. Thus, smartphones and tablets have become a part of almost every household. The BfS also has adapted to the new developments and provides regular updates of its list of all devices available on the market, which was first started in 2002 as a table about radiation emitted by cellphones. Today the radiation protection authority offers a comfortable “SAR-search” under www.bfs.de/sar-werte-handy where more than 2,500 types from more than 60 producers are listed.

In addition, the list has been extended to tablets, among others, which are not only used as computers but also to surf on the internet. By entering "tablet" in the search field, you can filter the list to find all tablets included.

In 2015, the devices of a selected manufacturer can not only be displayed, but the result can also be further refined by setting a filter: for example for devices from the same manufacturer with a lower SAR value between 0.2 and 0.4 watts per kilogram.

Recommendations to reduce radiation exposure

You can reduce your individual exposure in everyday life by changing your own behaviour. In addition to the recommendations on phoning with mobile phones, there are the following special tips for the new applications offered by tablets and smartphones:

• Make sure the SAR-value of the device you are going to buy is as low as possible.
• Surfing on the internet and accessing emails is recommended only with good reception or via WLAN. WLAN is usually associated with a lower transmission power than the mobile radio standards UMTS, GSM or LTE.
• Keep your tablet or smartphone at sufficient distance from your body when surfing on the internet. Exposure to high-frequency fields is clearly reduced with increasing distance.
• Use a headset for making your calls. This applies for smartphones exactly the same way as for classic mobile phones.
• Avoid retrieving emails when you make a call. If you want to keep your individual radiation exposure particularly low, turn off background data traffic.
• Select manual email retrieval only if needed.
• If you wear your smartphone on the body, keep the minimum distance indicated by the manufacturer. Use the carrying accessories provided by the manufacturer.

What means SAR?

SAR is the specific absorption rate (SAR) - a measure of the energy intake in the body. It is measured in watts per kilogram (W/kg). In order to exclude health effects of high-frequency fields, the specific absorption rate of a mobile phone shall not exceed 2 watts per kilogram. Mobile phones with an SAR value of 0.6 at maximum are considered as low-radiation mobile phones.