DAS: the French regulator lowers the power of Samsung smartphones and others
The National Frequency Agency (ANFR) lowered the power of smartphones from Samsung, Hisense and Gigaset in order to respect the SAR limit values in Europe.
“The companies Samsung, Hisense and Gigaset have taken the decision to reduce the power of their terminals via a software update,” ANFR said in a press release.
The agency responsible for controlling the use of the electromagnetic spectrum, used in particular for wireless telecommunications, had checked the Galaxy Note 10+ (Samsung), Infinity H30 (Hisense) and GS290 (Gigaset) smartphones and had identified values exceeding the limits imposed by European regulations.
These frame the specific absorption rates (SAR), a concept that quantifies the energy transported by electromagnetic waves and absorbed by the human body. Measurements are taken in several standard situations, phone in hand, close to the body or head.
The update applied by the manufacturers makes the localized “limb” and “trunk” SARs compliant with the regulatory limits of 4 W/kg (watts per kilogram) and 2 W/kg. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ and Hisense Infinity H30 devices thus go from 4.3 W/kg before their update for the localized “limb” measurement to 2 W/kg, while the Gigaset GX290 sees its localized “trunk” SAR decrease from 2.9 to 0.8 W/kg.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “nothing indicates for the moment that exposure to low intensity electromagnetic fields is dangerous for human health” and this “despite numerous studies”.
