EWG November 12 2013

Washington, D.C. – In recent years, a series of studies have shown that a consumer’s choice of wireless carrier may be more important than the cell phone itself in determining how much radiation will reach the user, according to a new analysis by researchers at the Environmental Working Group.
These studies indicate that users of similar mobile devices can be exposed to starkly different intensities of radio frequency emissions, depending on which network technology their carriers use to transmit signals.
“For the many people who want to avoid excessive cell phone radiation, the choice of wireless network is key,” said Renee Sharp, director of research for EWG. “Yet they don’t have enough information to make that decision, because neither the Federal Communications Commission nor the wireless industry makes public critical information about wireless systems’ radiation levels in real-world conditions.”
One important industry-funded study, published in 2010 but based on data collected in 2005 and 2006, showed that AT&T and T-Mobile 2G (second generation) networks that used GSM and TDMA technologies exposed cell phone users to 30 to 300 times more radiation than Verizon and Sprint networks with a technology called CDMA.
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