As a fan of Apple I have considered an iPhone to replace my Serene. One of the factors holding me back has been the SAR level of the iPhone. The Serene has a very low SAR level of .33, based on what I have read. (Yes, I know cell phones  are safe and there is as of yet no conclusive evidence of a health hazard due to radiation from a cell phone).  

Looking at the SAR ratings for the iPhone there are figures for both head and body. I can not find both head and body numbers for the Serene. Does anybody know if the .33 figure for the Serene is head? body?  or some other?  I am confused about how to correlate the one figure for the Serene with the two figures for the iPhone.

According to what i have found:

''According to previous generation of iPhone (3G); Apple increased new generation’s SAR value 0.10 scales, totally it reached 0.43 W/kg. Motorola Milestone has 1.38, HTC Evo 4G has 0.96, so iPhone seems very conceivable value. Also, new iPhone reaches 1.17 W/kg SAR value during talking. This ratio was 1.19 W/kg in iPhone 3G S.''.

And also:

''SAR (specific absorption rate) is a measurement of how much electromagnetic radiation is absorbed by body tissue whilst using a mobile phone. The higher the SAR the more radiation is absorbed.

In Europe, the European Union Council has adopted the recommendations made by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP Guidelines 1998). These recommendations set a SAR limit of 2.0 W/kg in 10g of tissue. The UK Government has endorsed this limit (following a report by the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones) and the five mobile phone network operators have agreed to voluntarily adopt the ICNIRP guidelines for public exposure. All mobile phones on sale in the UK comply with this limit.

In the United States, the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) requires all cell phones to comply with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) SAR limit of 1.6 W/kg in 1g of tissue.''

 

So i don't really see the problem...

so does the Serene's .33 correspond to the .43, meaning the iPhone puts out just a little more radiation than the Serene, or does it correspond to the 1.17 meaning the iPhone puts out more than three times as much radiation as the Serene?

Is the scale linear or log (sorry, I have not looked into this)?

What does the literature say? 

Any sensible scientific or medical opinion here?

I found the answer in the user guide. .33 is head,   .36 is body.  European SAR is also listed in the manual.

j0hnbarker:

Is the scale linear or log (sorry, I have not looked into this)?

What does the literature say? 

Any sensible scientific or medical opinion here?

When I was a master student in Germany, a colleague of mine while smoking during our lunchbreak asked a famous professor in Physics (lasers and electromagnetic waves specialist). - Professor what can you say to us about cell phone radiation? And he answered: - You that you are a smoker should never worry about cell phone radiation. In my opinion a clear point by the Professor

.....but I am not a smoker........while I am unaware of any definitive studies showing there is a risk from cell phone radiation, I am also unaware of any definitive studies that say there is no risk. I am, however, aware of many articles I have read, as well as common sense, lower radiation will lower the risk, if any, so I prefer to choose lower rather than higher radiation phones.