SAR measurements: ANFR’s reprehensible omissions

In a press release dated December 7, 2022, the French National Agency of Frequencies (ANFR) publishes the SAR measurements it carried out in 2021 with a one-year lag. The agency’s database, which we obliged it to make public in 2018 by legal means, currently includes 862 test reports, carried out between 2012 and 2022.

More tests, but incomplete ones and not protecting health

141 mobile phones were therefore checked in 2021 – compared to 95 the previous year –, which our NGO, from whose came the alert and the first sanctions against the manufacturers, welcomes. However, we note with regret that the head SAR has only been measured for 14 of them (10%), which is totally insufficient.

Moreover, according to the ANFR, of the 135 telephones checked in trunk SAR, only 2 would have exceeded the regulatory limit. We see that, once again, once too often, the agency chooses to pursue a mission of communication much more than protecting the health of millions of smartphone users.

Still no SAR measurements in “real conditions of use”…despite ANSES’s recommendations

Indeed, as specified in the ANFR report, the trunk SAR measurements were taken at a distance of 5 millimeters from the body. However, as recommended by the French National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) in its “Phonegate” report dating from 2019, the trunk SAR should be measured directly on the skin, at zero millimeter away.

Regarding it, the French government also filed a formal objection in direction of the European Commission in September 2020. Three years later, it is clear that nothing is really in place to protect the health of our fellow citizens.

Significantly underestimated SAR values

The measures taken by the ANFR therefore do not comply with the recommendations of our national health agency (ANSES), these being validated by the French government itself. Thus, none of the 141 cell phones tested in 2021 would have obtained compliance and therefore the possibility of being put on sale in France, if these recommendations had been duly applied during the checks carried out.

In addition, and as we have already reminded both ANFR, ANSES and the Government, the variation of certain test parameters has a major influence on SAR measurements.

SAR measured on 10g of human tissue in Europe, why?

These measurements are in fact carried out on 10 grams of human tissue in Europe against 1 gram in the United States, thus mechanically multiplying the collected SAR value (head, trunk and limb) by 2.5 or 3. These are therefore all SAR measurements that would greatly exceed the authorized European limits.

Tests carried out in November 2020 by the specialized company Art-Fi, as part of the Complément d’Enquête documentary “5g, l’ombre d’un doute“, thus revealed worrying results: the SAR values for Apple iPhone 8, measured in contact with the skin with 4G standards, raised to 10.168 W/kg at 1g against 3.298 W/kg at 10g. The same goes for Huawei‘s Nova 5T, whose values went from 5.093 W/kg with the American standard to 1.929 W/kg with the European standard. That is an increase in both cases of more than twice the value of the SAR, but above all well beyond the threshold not to be exceeded in France which is 4 W/kg for the member SAR.

The misleading assertions of the ANFR, in disregard of users health

It is therefore urgent and essential to carry out checks to assess the actual level of SAR to which users are exposed. Dr. Marc Arazi, president of the Alerte Phonegate association and the source of the revelations of the health and industrial scandal, deplores a major problem:

“ANFR’s assertions are deliberately misleading. The agency goes on in an assumed approach aiming at openly promoting mobile phones industry, at the cost of the users health. None of the phones placed on the French and European markets are without danger for health. The pseudo “compliance” is fake and the ANFR will have to answer for having abused French citizens.”

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