France halts iPhone 12 sales over radiation levels::Apple has been told it must recall every iPhone 12 sold in the country if it cannot fix the problem.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
On Tuesday, the French watchdog which governs radio frequencies also told the tech giant to fix existing phones.
The ANFR has advised Apple that if it cannot resolve the issue via a software update, it must recall every iPhone 12 ever sold in the country.
But the World Health Organization has previously sought to allay fears about radiation emitted by mobile phones.
Apple told the BBC it was contesting the ANFR’s review, and said it had provided the regulator with lab results from the tech giant itself and third parties which show the device is compliant with all the relevant rules.
France’s digital minister Jean-Noel Barrot told French newspaper Le Parisien the decision was due to radiation levels above the acceptable threshold, according to Reuters.
It comes as the Chinese foreign ministry issued a rebuttal against media reports which claimed government agencies had told staff to stop using iPhones.
The original article contains 477 words, the summary contains 149 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Me browsing this on a 12Pro:
“Phew”
Radio waves are on the other end of the electromagnetic spectrum from cancer-causing light. It’s very well settled that radio waves cannot cause cancer.
Fair play to France. It’s above legal levels, properly threatening tech giants is what they need to comply.
Frances is notable for being very strict about cell phone radiation. They require every phone sold to include a headset with mic, not for hand free driving, but because the government says that talking on the phone normally exposes your head to dangerous levels of radiation.
We have no evidence of health danger when it comes to wifi & co, but customers should be able to choose if they want the phone away from their head or not is more how I understand it. Consumers here are indeed well protected, it’s quite nice tbh
As for why
EMR radiation isn’t the type that can cause cancer (which happens when the radiation wavelength is low enough to ‘ionize’ genetic material), but it can heat up tissue the same way a microwave might. With tissue heating, standards are likely set based on the risks / concerns that a country’s health authority thought were reasonable enough. This might also vary depending on different parts of the body.
If they set a standard and a malfunction is causing the phone to exceed that limit, it’s worth stopping sales so that it can be fixed.
Has there been any cause of RF leading to burns or fever? The idea that a cell phone could transfer enough energy to make even the slightest difference seems insane to me. I can’t imagine it’s physically possible for the health risk to be any worse than raising your thermostat by 1° would be.
This seems like nothing more than pandering to psuedoscientific quakery.
I smell a class action lawsuit
Not sure. The EU legal systems are different to the US. You can’t just sue for millions of damges willy nilly you’d need to display how you’ve been out of pocket by some value and then sue for that. This kind of thing is very hard to put a finger on, also if apple update and/or recall the devices there is nothing to be wronged for (assuming they give refunds, updates, replacements).
I’m assuming in the US you can just sue apple for the fact it was above the limit and gain damages even when it’s had no measurable impact on you?
I bought iPhone 12 when it came out but returned it due to having yellow screen issues which have never been fixed. I bought 11 pro instead as it actually takes better pictures than the 12. I knew something was wrong with that phone 😅
Ever since I saw camera reviews online I crossed the 12 out from my options. The 11 (and 13) pictures were considered better and more color accurate in most blind test reviews.
