H
ealt
h and safe
ty infor
m
ation
23
Health and safety information
Exposure to radio frequency
(RF) signals
Certification Information (SAR)
Your wireless phone is a radio transmitter and receiver. It
is designed and manufactured not to exceed the exposure
limits for radio frequency (RF) energy set by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) of the U.S.
government. These FCC exposure limits are derived from
the recommendations of two expert organizations, the
National Counsel on Radiation Protection and
Measurement (NCRP) and the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In both cases, the
recommendations were developed by scientific and
engineering experts drawn from industry, government,
and academia after extensive reviews of the scientific
literature related to the biological effects of RF energy.
The exposure limit set by the FCC for wireless mobile
phones employs a unit of measurement known as the
Specific Absorption Rate (SAR). The SAR is a measure of
the rate of absorption of RF energy by the human body
expressed in units of watts per kilogram (W/kg). The FCC
requires wireless phones to comply with a safety limit of
1.6 watts per kilogram (1.6 W/kg). The FCC exposure limit
incorporates a substantial margin of safety to give
additional protection to the public and to account for any
variations in measurements.
SAR tests are conducted using standard operating
positions accepted by the FCC with the phone transmitting
at its highest certified power level in all tested frequency
bands. Although the SAR is determined at the highest
certified power level, the actual SAR level of the phone
while operating can be well below the maximum value.
This is because the phone is designed to operate at
multiple power levels so as to use only the power required
to reach the network. In general, the closer you are to a
wireless base station antenna, the lower the power
output.