BlackBerry Bold Tops Radiation Ranking

geek4 writes with this excerpt from eWeek Europe: "Data from the Environmental Working Group places the BlackBerry Bold 9700 as the mobile device with the highest legal levels of cell phone radiation among popular smartphones. Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold 9700 scores the highest among popular smartphones for exposing users to the highest legal levels of cell phone radiation, according to the latest 2010 Environmental Working Group ranking. Following the Bold 9700 are the Motorola Droid, the LG Chocolate and Google's HTC Nexus One. The rankings still put the phones well within federal guidelines and rules."

Comments

Oh good

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps this means it'll get signal where I live?

lol, where's the iPhone?

[0xdeadbeef]

You poor fanboys, your precious toy didn't even make the list. Weak is the signal, weak as the user.

Re:lol, where's the iPhone?

[DJRumpy]

Here's the URL with the full list of phones (yes, including the iPhone if you're curious): http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/Get-a-Safer-Phone?allavailable=1

Re:Brand-name Power

[sakdoctor]

Why do you hate Americium?

not a big deal

[sammykrupa]

Someone compiled a list, then sorted it numerically by some quantifiable characteristic.

Something came in at #1. what a surprise. this doesn't mean #1 is that that good or great or bad or harmful, as noted in the summary itself
"The rankings still put the phones well within federal guidelines and rules."

stupid

no comprende

[Eil]

The rankings still put the phones well within federal guidelines and rules.

Then why is it a story?

Re:no comprende

[natehoy]

Three reasons come to mind:

1. Even though it's within limits, there are people who intentionally look for units that emit the least RF possible, so that if it does turn out there was a risk they are minimizing their risk. It's at least more rational than sleeping in a Faraday cage and suing neighbors for WiFi radiation or wearing tinfoil underwear. If you need a cell phone but have some concerns about RF exposure, picking the cell phone that emits the lowest levels of RF just seems like a rational middle ground.

2. Some will intentionally seek out phones with high RF because more RF means the radio has more juice or the antenna is more efficient, which means it'll get "more bars in more places". I know my Blackberry Curve 8310 gets awesome signal in a lot of places that iPhones don't, so I'm sure that also means it's putting out more RF and/or has a more efficient antenna.

3. If it's GSM, one of the side effects is the annoying clicky-buzzing sound every nonshielded electronic device within ten yards emits. Less RF means less of that interference.

This link would have been nice in the article...

[CliffH]

http://www.ewg.org/cellphone-radiation -- This is the actual report site. Have a look through.

Radiation yes, but non-ionizing radiation folks...

[Audrey23]

Folks please don't get wound up about 'radiation' from a wireless device, remember that it is only 'heating' radiation, not ionizing radiation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-ionizing_radiation. All it is going to do is warm your skin near where the phone is, or very slow cook for you microwave oven enthusiasts... Ionizing radiation like gamma rays are quite another story and will cause DNA damage, but are a wholly different type of 'radiation'. You will get more damage from standing out in the sun every day then you will from the weak signal that is emitted from your mobile. Now the fact that most mobile phones these days do not have a very efficient antenna is quite the reason that so many of them have such bad SAR values, if people could just stand having a little 'duckie' antenna sticking out of the top of the phone then we would have more efficient emission of the signal and a better SAR value. But that is not sexy and so we won't see any more antenna's like we did when cellphones first came out and so instead the phone body itself is the antenna and a good portion of the emitted signal is absorbed by the hand and head, its just the way it works... The best thing is to educate yourself and make your own decisions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health

Re:Brand-name Power

[willworkforbeer]

I hope this doesn't turn into a boron and predictable thread of chemistry puns.

A post like that is like a big Neon sign just asking for it to happen though.

I zinc you guys must beryllium, like, so bored this evening.

Manganese puns get any lamer?

Re:So?

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a fact for you: .08 isn't the magic number at which people are intoxicated. Facts didn't drop that number, lobbying by MADD and other groups dropped that number.