10th October 2026
The European Commission has adopted a new mobile phone radiation testing standard requiring testing at 0 mm, directly against the body, reflecting more closely how many of us actually carry and use mobile phones.
This is an excellent change, and credit must also go to PHONEGATE for helping to bring this important issue onto the agenda and pushing for more realistic mobile phone radiation testing.
The new standard could mean that quite a number of existing Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) handsets may no longer comply with the permitted SAR limits under the new testing conditions. Manufacturers have until March 2028 to comply with the new standard.
But how will manufacturers achieve this?
In many handsets, the main antenna was moved from the top of the phone to the bottom to “spread out the radiation” and reduce the main hotspot near the ear. However, moving the antenna also changes the distribution of radiofrequency energy around the body. Depending on the handset design and how it is used, this may increase exposure in other areas, including the lower neck, where it irradiates the very radiation near the sensitive thyroid gland. This raises an important question: are current testing methods adequately assessing exposure to all relevant tissues?
Children May Absorb More Radiofrequency Energy
Particular attention must also be paid to children. The Radiation Research Trust (RRT) has highlighted research suggesting that, under certain exposure conditions, children may absorb substantially more radiofrequency energy in some tissues than adults.
Research discussed in the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s radiofrequency assessment has reported that the energy absorbed in children’s skull bone marrow can be up to 10 times higher than in adults under certain modelled conditions.
Children’s developing bodies and potentially longer lifetime exposure make it important that their exposure is properly investigated. Testing standards should take account of realistic use by children and adolescents, rather than relying exclusively on assumptions based on adult users.
Testing for Maximum Heating Spots Alone Is Not Enough
SAR testing is designed to assess radiofrequency energy absorption, primarily in relation to established limits intended to protect against harmful heating. Compliance with these limits does not, by itself, resolve the scientific question about reported biological effects.
We also need robust, independent investigation of reported non-thermal biological effects of electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure and long-term health impacts of mobile phone use.
This must be the beginning, not the end, of the discussion.
Protecting public health requires realistic testing conditions, transparent and independent research, urgent consideration of children’s exposure, and continued investigation of reported health effects beyond heating alone.
Read the Full Report
For further details on the European Commission’s new mobile phone radiation testing standard, the implications of testing at 0 mm body contact, and why more realistic testing is important for public health, read the full report:
We encourage readers to examine the findings, share this information, and adopt a precautionary approach to mobile phone radiation exposure for the benefit of us all, especially our children.
