Mobile phones sold in Australia must comply with strict Federal Government standards, which contain large in-built safety margins and are designed, built and tested to protect all users.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA), Chris Althaus, said consumers could be confident that their mobile phone handsets complied with strict safety standards and had the “A-tick” stamped on the phone, denoting they operated well below the Australian safety limit when tested using agreed test procedures.

He was commenting on moves by San Francisco local government authorities to require retailers in that city to display handsets’ SAR values at the point of sale from early next year.

The SAR of Specific Absorption Rate is a unit of measurement used in the standard and it measures the amount of radiofrequency energy absorbed by the body when using a mobile phone. It is expressed in watts per kilogram and the safety limit in Australia is based on the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) limit which is 2.0 watts per kilogram averaged over ten grams.

Mr Althaus said the proponents in San Francisco for the requirement for retailers to display the handset model’s SAR value was premised on what they termed “the consumers’ right to be informed”.

“Our industry is committed to disseminating accurate science-based information to assist people make informed choices about mobile technology and health. To be able to do this consumers must be properly and comprehensively informed and headline figures can be misleading and confusing if not used properly and put in the right context,” he said.

“The fact is that all mobiles sold in Australia meet strict safety standards and although the handsets sold here may vary slightly in their measured exposure levels at maximum power output, they are regarded as equally safe because they are all below the safety limit, which includes large additional safety margins.

“It would be doing consumers a disservice if they were led to believe that one model of phone was safer than another based on the SAR value.

“The test method is designed to find the maximum SAR value for each handset, which does not necessarily reflect the exposure in everyday use. In order to improve battery life and available call time, mobile phones constantly adapt to the minimum power required to make a quality call depending on reception and how close they are to the nearest base station.”

The mobile telecommunications industry already makes SAR information available to the public in a number of ways, which include:

•  Check the phone handbook or user manual – look under “safety” or “specifications"

•  Search under the manufacturer’s website for your phone model and SAR – it is usually listed under “safety” or “product specifications”

• Use a web search engine such as Google to search for your phone model and SAR

• Contact the manufacturer and ask for the SAR information

• Contact the mobile dealer or your network provider

•  Check the Mobile Manufacturers Forum website

Earlier this month, the California Senate voted down an even more wide-ranging labeling bill. A bill in Maine that would have required warning labels on mobiles like those on cigarettes was defeated in March.