Is my crackberry going to give me tumors??

Listen, I love my mobile phones. They are fun little gadgets that can amuse us and also be a vital link to the outside world. As a household with no home phone, my crack is my lifeline to all my friends and family. But . . . is this little guy trying to kill me?

So innocent looking isn't it?

Well lets dig in and find out.

Radiation levels in phones and their effect on people is debatable to say the least. Lets not get into that whole argument. I will just give you the facts. The fact is the FCC tests every single model phone before it hits the market. They perform tests and assign a SAR rating (Specific Absorption Rate) to each phone. Take this blurb from CNET:

SAR, is "a way of measuring the quantity of radio frequency (RF) energy that is absorbed by the body." For a phone to pass FCC certification and be sold in the United States, its maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6 watts per kilogram

Given this; you would want as low of a number as possible to that mini antenna stuck to your head right?? Apparently not me! I checked up on my trusty Blackberry Curve (8330) and its rating is a whopping 1.54, 6th highest rating of ALL phones on the market! Whoa momma; talk about a shocker. Being that I am convinced that mobile phones do cause serious effects, this is troubling. Will I end up ditching the crack for safer pastures?? Probably. But that is more from my obsession with phones in general.


Just something to think about my friends the next time you are chatting up friends endlessly on your mobile. Here are some of the phones my faithful readers use for comparison sakes:

Iphone


Original - 0.974
3G - 1.38
3GS - 0.79


Blackberry Storm



0.5



Samsung Intensity





0.727



Time to ditch my trusty Curve! But to where? Time will tell . . .