Simulation of exposure and SAR estimation for adult and child heads exposed to radiofrequency energy from portable communication devices.
Bit-Babik, G., Guy, A. W., Chou, C-K., Faraone, A., Kanda, M., Gessner, A., Wang, J. and Fujiwara, O. · 2005
View Original AbstractChildren's heads absorb similar amounts of cell phone radiation per gram of tissue as adults, but equal absorption doesn't guarantee equal health risks.
Plain English Summary
Researchers used computer modeling to compare how much radiofrequency energy from cell phones is absorbed by children's heads versus adult heads. They found that children's smaller heads absorb about the same amount of energy per gram of tissue as adult heads when exposed to the same phone emissions. This challenges earlier concerns that children might face dramatically higher radiation exposure from mobile devices.
Why This Matters
This study addresses a critical question that has sparked considerable debate: do children face higher radiation exposure from cell phones due to their smaller head size? The research provides important technical evidence that peak absorption rates are comparable between adult and child head models. However, we must consider what this modeling study doesn't address. The reality is that identical absorption rates don't necessarily mean identical health risks. Children's developing nervous systems, thinner skulls, and longer lifetime exposure windows could still create different vulnerability profiles. What this means for you is that while this research suggests children don't absorb dramatically more radiation per gram of tissue, it doesn't resolve broader questions about age-related sensitivity to EMF exposure.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
The present study incorporates FDTD computations of locally averaged SAR in two different anatomically correct adult and child head models using the IEEE standard (Std. C95.3-2002) SAR averaging algorithm.
The child head models were obtained by linear scaling of the adult head model to replicate the condi...
Results show that the peak local average SAR over 1 g and 10 g of tissue and the electromagnetic ene...
Show BibTeX
@article{bit_babik_2005_simulation_of_exposure_and_1911,
author = {Bit-Babik and G. and Guy and A. W. and Chou and C-K. and Faraone and A. and Kanda and M. and Gessner and A. and Wang and J. and Fujiwara and O.},
title = {Simulation of exposure and SAR estimation for adult and child heads exposed to radiofrequency energy from portable communication devices.},
year = {2005},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15850420/},
}