Analysis of three-dimensional SAR distributions emitted by mobile phones in an epidemiological perspective.
Deltour I, Wiart J, Taki M, Wake K, Varsier N, Mann S, Schüz J, Cardis E. · 2011
View Original AbstractMobile phones with similar designs can produce vastly different radiation patterns in your brain, making exposure harder to predict.
Plain English Summary
Researchers analyzed how mobile phone radiation (SAR) spreads through the head using 120 different phones across multiple frequency bands (800-1800 MHz). They found that phones with similar external features don't necessarily produce similar radiation patterns in the brain, making it difficult to predict exposure levels based on phone appearance alone. This research was conducted to help improve large-scale health studies like Interphone that investigate links between mobile phone use and brain cancer.
Why This Matters
This study reveals a critical challenge in EMF health research: you can't judge a phone's radiation pattern by its cover. The researchers found that external phone characteristics like shape and antenna placement don't reliably predict how radiofrequency energy distributes through brain tissue. This matters because epidemiological studies trying to link phone use to health effects need accurate exposure assessments, not rough approximations based on phone models. The reality is that SAR patterns are complex and variable, even among phones that look similar or operate on the same frequencies. What this means for you is that relying on phone specifications or external features to gauge your EMF exposure isn't sufficient. The science demonstrates that radiation absorption patterns are more individualized than previously assumed, which makes personal protection strategies even more important than waiting for population-level studies to provide definitive answers.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study. The study examined exposure from: 800, 900, 1500 and 1800 MHz
Study Details
The three-dimensional distribution of the specific absorption rate of energy (SAR) in phantom models was analysed to detect clusters of mobile phones producing similar spatial deposition of energy in the head.
The clusters' characteristics were described from the phones external features, frequency band and c...
Each phone's measurements were summarised by the half-ellipsoid in which the SAR values were above h...
Show BibTeX
@article{i_2011_analysis_of_threedimensional_sar_2026,
author = {Deltour I and Wiart J and Taki M and Wake K and Varsier N and Mann S and Schüz J and Cardis E.},
title = {Analysis of three-dimensional SAR distributions emitted by mobile phones in an epidemiological perspective.},
year = {2011},
doi = {10.1002/bem.20684},
url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.20684},
}