Cellphone manufacturers may soon be asked to clearly label the specific absorption rate (SAR) of phones as a guide to potential health risks, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
SAR measures electromagnetic exposure to the human body.
Huang Ming-chen (黃銘真), a specialist at the commission’s technical management division, said manufacturers currently provide information for users about SAR in cellphone manuals with few labels placed on phones.
“When they [manufacturers] do [place labels on phones], the sticker is generally inside the battery socket, underneath the battery,” she said.
Huang said the commission might amend regulations to ask manufacturers to place stickers on the exterior of cellphones.
Huang made the statement in response to the results of a survey by the Taiwan Electromagnetic Radiation Hazard Protection and Control Association.
The survey explored the use of cellphones among children and teenagers aged six to 18. Between August and the beginning of this month, the association collected 1,132 valid samples nationwide.
Findings include an estimated 2.2 million in the specified age group owning cellphones. Approximately 390,000 of respondents talk on average for more than five minutes each time they use their phone and about 170,000 talk for more than 10 minutes.
The survey also found that 60 percent of cellphones have an SAR a million times higher than the background value within five seconds of a call being connected.
The association suggested that the government set an SAR standard for cellphones. Aside from labels, the government should ask manufacturers to place warnings on cellphones, such as “Frequent cellphone users are at higher risk of developing brain tumors,” the association said.
Huang, however, said that the SAR used by the association for cellphones is meaningless, since the tool they used to measure SAR is mainly used on objects with larger surface areas.
Also See: Group urges official action to dissuade child cellphone use
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
STILL ON THE TABLE: The government is not precluding advanced nuclear power generation if it is proven safer and the nuclear waste issue is solved, the premier said Taiwan is willing to be in step with the world by considering new methods of nuclear energy generation and to discuss alternative approaches to provide more stable power generation and help support industries, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. The government would continue to develop diverse and green energy solutions, which include considering advances in nuclear energy generation, he added. Cho’s remarks echoed President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments in an interview last month, saying the government is not precluding “advanced and newer nuclear power generation” if it is proven to be safer and the issue of nuclear waste is resolved. Lai’s comment had
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
RSS