this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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PARIS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Apple must stop selling its iPhone 12 model in France due to above-threshold radiation levels, France's junior minister for the digital economy told newspaper Le Parisien in an interview published on Tuesday.

France's radiation watchdog ANFR notified Apple of its decision to ban iPhone 12 sales after it had carried out tests which showed the smartphone's Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) was slightly higher than legally allowed, Jean-Noel Barrot told the paper.

Apple did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

Barrot said a software update would be sufficient to fix the radiation issues linked to the phone which the U.S. company has been selling since 2020.

"Apple is expected to respond within two weeks", he said, adding: "If they fail to do so, I am prepared to order a recall of all iPhones 12 in circulation. The rule is the same for everyone, including the digital giants."

The European Union has set safety limits for SAR values linked to exposure to mobile phones, which could increase the risk of some forms of cancer according to scientific studies.

The French watchdog will now pass on its findings to regulators in other EU member states. "In practical terms, this decision could have a snowball effect", said Barrot.

In 2020, France widened regulations requiring retailers to display the radiation value of products on packaging beyond cell phones, including tablets and other electronic devices.

Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Aurora Ellis

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[–] Tb0n3@sh.itjust.works 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I saw the other post and figured they must be talking about some radioactive isotope that got into the manufacturing process, but no. They're talking about fucking radio waves. Do not mix up ionizing radiation from radioactive sources with non-ionizong radiation from RF sources. One damages DNA and the other kind of slightly heats things by a fraction of a degree. You get drastically more heat by running a game and then holding it to your head, or wearing a hat.

[–] pH3ra@lemmy.ml -3 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[–] gmatt@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This category is used for agents, mixtures and exposure circumstances for which there is limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and less than sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals. It may also be used when there is inadequate evidence of carcinogenicity in humans but there is sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals.

[...]

This list is focusing on the hazard linked to the agents. This means that the carcinogenic agents are capable of causing cancer, but this does not take their risk into account, which is the probability of causing a cancer given the level of exposure to this carcinogenic agent.

https://monographs.iarc.who.int/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CurrentPreamble.pdf

The results in this case were deemed limited by the IARC, meaning:

[...] chance, bias or confounding could not be ruled out with reasonable confidence.

https://www.iarc.who.int/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pr208_E.pdf

Seems to me like one should expect more concrete evidence after decades of active research on the topic.

[–] Tb0n3@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Also billions of phone users and a persistent background RF.

[–] youRFate@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

Yes, but the term radiation usually implies ionizing radiation.

[–] knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

My understanding of Group 2B is that it's assigned to whatever IARC researchers get enough lobby money for to classify in some way. They'll give some lab rats a gargantuan dose of the substance, something will happen, and 2B can be assigned.

Put another way, they found all the Group 1 definite carcinogens by the early 2000s and needed a reason to keep researching after that. Of course there are some new substances that pop up regularly that need to be investigated but beyond that there's a significant established base of knowledge.

With the RF specifically its interesting that some groups have correlated it to negative health outcomes, but nobody as of yet has shown how it can even affect the human body, let alone cause cancer.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

iPhone 12? Aren't they on iPhone 15 now? How many tens of millions of people are using those? A recall would be interesting.

[–] Frederic@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

They could just ask operators to ban based on IMEI I guess, it would be the easiest one.

[–] Aetherion@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)

So, do I now have cancer? Even thou I bought a iphone 12 mini?

[–] balls_expert@lemmy.blahaj.zone 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

5.6 watts a second is 5.6 joules which would, if entirely directed at your nuts, heat the equivalent mass in water to your ballsack by 0.20°C

I've done worse temperature changes to ballsacks by putting them in my mouth you'll be fineeeee

[–] agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What a comment, what a name, what a purpose. Claps.

[–] balls_expert@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

God I forgot I was named that

[–] agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lmfao you portrayed relevent scientific information contextualized with the human scrotum and you're telling me you did all that forgetting your name? Amazing.

[–] balls_expert@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And who could blame you

[–] clearedtoland@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

For a moment, I read it as having done it to your own ballsack. I was equal parts impressed and intrigued (scared?).

[–] Aetherion@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

ok thanks now I feel save to use my iphone as vibrator

[–] agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 year ago

Nah, this has got to be about the radio waves that make up cell phone signal which is non ionizing radiation just like FM radio is. Good to regulate because of how close we keep phones to us. Extended exposure to too high levels can cause problems.

[–] Zehzin@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

From the Googling I just did, the levels phones aren't allowed to be sold are purposedly kept way lower than what would be actually harmful. If you're actually worried about overexposure, like if your job had you make phone calls all day, use headphones, that way it's not contacting you.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Depends on where you store your phone and how close the nearest tower is.

If you regularly have low or no reception and keep your phone between your legs, it could cause problems. The phone doesn’t need to be making a voice call to ramp up the signal; it just needs to be compensating for a weak tower signal.

[–] pH3ra@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's just a partial answer.
When doing this calculations, safety commissions always takes count of what they call "cumulative exposure", as mobile phones are just one of many devices emitting radiations, with modems, IOT stuff, bluetooth/radio rigs, microwaves, even some LED lamps... If one devices "contributes too much" to the summation must be discarded.

[–] pimento64@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Please explain in your own words what you think radiation is and how you believe this kind causes harm. As in, the actual mechanism. This should be good.

[–] pH3ra@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't work in physics or medicine, but I have background in workplace safety checks and how EMF regulation works. If you think I interpreted wrong the informations try to do it in a constructive way.
Otherwise you're just creating more confusion

[–] Wage_Slave@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

The mini, due to it's small size and easy to boof design I think would make it the most cancerous of the designs.

Imagine, finally being able to boof your iphone and then the battery goes full spicy pillow and pops. And the inside of the battery is where the real cancer magic happens.

Pretty embarrassing stuff if you ask me.

[–] Pili@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 1 year ago

Just mini cancer

[–] pH3ra@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tim Cook's balls must be so swollen from all the EU's kicks...

[–] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

While Randy Marsh is putting a dozen in his pants

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 2 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


PARIS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Apple must stop selling its iPhone 12 model in France due to above-threshold radiation levels, France's junior minister for the digital economy told newspaper Le Parisien in an interview published on Tuesday.

France's radiation watchdog ANFR notified Apple of its decision to ban iPhone 12 sales after it had carried out tests which showed the smartphone's Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) was slightly higher than legally allowed, Jean-Noel Barrot told the paper.

Barrot said a software update would be sufficient to fix the radiation issues linked to the phone which the U.S. company has been selling since 2020.

"Apple is expected to respond within two weeks", he said, adding: "If they fail to do so, I am prepared to order a recall of all iPhones 12 in circulation.

The European Union has set safety limits for SAR values linked to exposure to mobile phones, which could increase the risk of some forms of cancer according to scientific studies.

In 2020, France widened regulations requiring retailers to display the radiation value of products on packaging beyond cell phones, including tablets and other electronic devices.


The original article contains 237 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 21%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

But the radiation is one of the new features!