Mobile phone types and SAR characteristics of the human brain

• Published in: Physics in medicine & biology 2017-04, Vol.62 (7), p.2741-2761
• Main Authors: Lee, Ae-Kyoung, Hong, Seon-Eui, Kwon, Jong-Hwa, Choi, Hyung-Do, Cardis, Elisabeth
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Factors; brain; Brain - radiation effects; Cell Phone; Child; children; Female; Head - radiation effects; Humans; Male; mobile phone; Models, Theoretical; Phantoms, Imaging; radio frequency; Radio Waves - adverse effects; specific absorption rate
• ISSN: 0031-9155; 1361-6560
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/aa5c2d

Mobile phones differ in terms of their operating frequency, outer shape, and form and location of the antennae, all of which affect the spatial distributions of their electromagnetic field and the level of electromagnetic absorption in the human head or brain. For this paper, the specific absorption rate (SAR) was calculated for four anatomical head models at different ages using 11 numerical phone models of different shapes and antenna configurations. The 11 models represent phone types accounting for around 86% of the approximately 1400 commercial phone models released into the Korean market since 2002. Seven of the phone models selected have an internal dual-band antenna, and the remaining four possess an external antenna. Each model was intended to generate an average absorption level equivalent to that of the same type of commercial phone model operating at the maximum available output power. The 1 g peak spatial SAR and ipsilateral and contralateral brain-averaged SARs were reported for all 11 phone models. The effects of the phone type, phone position, operating frequency, and age of head models on the brain SAR were comprehensively determined.