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this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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Technology
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Calling it radiation gives the layman an implication that it's dangerous i.e. ionizing radiation. This is electromagnetic radiation, just radio waves.
You don't need iodine, this isn't going to give you radiation sickness, but it is a little surprising.
Relevant xkcd https://xkcd.com/radiation/
Bananaphones will give you ionizing radiation
That doesn't change the fact that it's not outputting ionizing radiation. It doesn't change the fact that the phone would literally have to be emitting hundreds of watts in order to begin having a noticable affect on its surroundings. I cannot fathom that the iPhone is legitimately able to output any level of ionizing radiation as you'd probably need physical chips designed to do that (or have a phone made out of uranium).
Most em radiation is literally harmless. Visible light is a form of em radiation. So are radiowaves and infrared. It's all photons. The reason why some kinds of em radiation are dangerous is because the photons can damage physical matter. Here's an image showing where the different EM bands are and what they correspond to:
Anything above visible light (UV and higher) is ionizing and dangerous to public health. Anything in the visible spectrum and below is only harmful when emitted at a high enough quantity to blind or literally cook something. It's only UV and above in which the photons have enough energy to damage physical matter.
Sorry, I missed the point of your reply. I've seen a lot of knee-jerking and I knee-jerked myself. My apologies.
You should consider actually reading the posts you are replying to.
Sorry but that's just not true. All radiation is harmful at high enough levels for prolonged periods of time. Sunlight, for example, will literally burn you in minutes if you're near the equator and don't have a tan.
Microwaves operate at about the same frequency as cell phones and at a thousand watts or more they will turn your blood into gas with just seconds of exposure. That would be a very very painful way to die.
The government has officially defined a power level that phones are allowed to output, and iPhones are outputting more than that. So they need to fix it. Immediately.
Yeah, microwaves can do that. At hundreds of watts at least. The other articles I've read suggest that the iPhone is putting out less than 6 watts. Go look at how many watts your microwave uses to heat something up. Imagine how bright a 6 watt lightbulb is. That's what we're talking about. Your computer screen probably puts out more EM radiation than a fucking iPhone.
That's what makes them literally harmless. Yes, they can technically cook you, but only at ridiculously high levels. Compared to UV, which can cause skin cancer at lower levels, they're harmless. Additionally, unlike UV, you aren't running the risk that they'll kill you with repeated exposure.
"Just radio waves" is what a microwave oven uses to explode eggs, or a laser to cut through metal.
It's none of those in this case, and the amount of radiation is nowhere near, but still... radio waves are not all that innocuous.
Radiation, as in nuclear decay, is also a catch-all that includes ionizing radiation, alpha, and beta particles.
I blame the guy who invented radium cream for all the confusion.
Radio waves can still be dangerous.
I highly doubt that it was radioactive at lethal levels, but they do have these limits for a reason. People might possibly have been harmed in some fringe cases.