Heise: There will likely be no labeling in the near future of low-radiation mobile handsets. On Wednesday the majority of the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of the Bundestag, the lower chamber of Germany’s Federal Parliament in Berlin, rejected a proposal by the opposition Liberal party (FDP) to ask mobile phone manufacturers to commit voluntarily to indicating by way of a label the radiation levels of handsets. The opposition Green Party’s proposal to make such labeling mandatory was also rejected.
The representatives of the parliamentary groups of the ruling Conservatives claimed there was no well-founded link between mobile handsets, the electromagnetic radiation these produce and sickness and disease in humans. In addition they pointed to difficulties that might arise in the domain of international competition, if such labeling were to occur. The ruling Social Democrats (SPD) stressed that research did not at present indicate that there was a danger. Among other institutions the Federal Office for Radiation Protection lists on its website the SAR values of specific handset models. The Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) indicates the amount of radiation energy the head of a person using the phone absorbs on average in relation to his or her body mass.
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