<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>paulmd</author><text>it is, and the french are kinda catering to the wackos by letting them tinker with the EU&amp;#x2F;FCC standards.  unsurprisingly when you place the phones closer than normal, you get a higher measurement, and if you do not adjust the absorption limits then wow, it&amp;#x27;s over the limit!  scary!&lt;p&gt;but there&amp;#x27;s no particular reason to think that this new, effectively lower absorption limit correlates to any particular health risk, or that it&amp;#x27;s a relevant threshold for absorption now that you&amp;#x27;ve moved the phone closer.&lt;p&gt;the fact of the matter is, if there was some major absorption risk from phones, we&amp;#x27;d have seen an abrupt spike in cancer rates in the 2000s when like 90% of the population suddenly started carrying a phone against their body for 16 hours a day. The world’s greatest (and ethical!) A&amp;#x2F;B test lol.&lt;p&gt;The evidence is already in, just from weight of mass public usage. At least at these frequencies and transmit powers.</text><parent_chain><item><author>lagrange77</author><text>I thought this whole EM radiation fear was bogus. How does it even interact with the body? There are obviously no neutrons flying around..</text></item><item><author>paulmd</author><text>Worth noting that this is due to the French regulators applying the same SAR absorption standard as the rest of the EU but at a closer distance. Obviously radiation follows the inverse square law so this means you absorb more radiation in France ;)&lt;p&gt;Even despite this reduced allowable emission the iPhone is barely out of compliance, they will need to reduce power less than 10% or simply get another few millimeters farther away.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>iPhone 12 withdrawn from French market for non-compliance with EU regulation</title><url>https://www.anfr.fr/liste-actualites/actualite/temporary-withdrawal-from-the-market-of-the-iphone-12-for-non-compliance-with-eu-regulation</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>lxgr</author><text>I believe the concern is that non-ionizing radiation can still warm tissues, and depending on the frequency, these can be deeper than what normal sunlight or IR radiation would reach.&lt;p&gt;Whether a few milliwats of that type of warming are actually cause for concern I don&amp;#x27;t know, but even if it&amp;#x27;s bogus, that doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that regulators will not be enforcing legal maximums anyway.</text><parent_chain><item><author>lagrange77</author><text>I thought this whole EM radiation fear was bogus. How does it even interact with the body? There are obviously no neutrons flying around..</text></item><item><author>paulmd</author><text>Worth noting that this is due to the French regulators applying the same SAR absorption standard as the rest of the EU but at a closer distance. Obviously radiation follows the inverse square law so this means you absorb more radiation in France ;)&lt;p&gt;Even despite this reduced allowable emission the iPhone is barely out of compliance, they will need to reduce power less than 10% or simply get another few millimeters farther away.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>iPhone 12 withdrawn from French market for non-compliance with EU regulation</title><url>https://www.anfr.fr/liste-actualites/actualite/temporary-withdrawal-from-the-market-of-the-iphone-12-for-non-compliance-with-eu-regulation</url></story>