For decades, cellphones sold across Europe were tested for radiation exposure at a distance of 5 millimeters from the body. That gap was not a safety margin rooted in how people actually use their phones. It was a testing artifact, and it meant that the radiation absorbed by millions of people carrying phones in their pockets or pressed against their skin was never the number on the compliance certificate. That is now changing.

The European Commission has adopted a new standard requiring cellphones to be tested at 0 millimeters from the body, the distance at which phones are actually carried and used. Environmental Health Sciences described the move as a “world first.” The change was published September 7 in the Official Journal of the European Union and takes effect March 7, 2028, giving manufacturers an 18-month transition window.

How the Testing Gap Developed

Radiation safety testing for cellphones relies on a measurement called the Specific Absorption Rate, or SAR, which estimates how much radiofrequency energy body tissue absorbs. Since 1997, compliance testing has used a standardized model called the Standard Anthropomorphic Mannequin, or SAM, a large, homogenous representation of an adult male head. That model, and the distances built into testing protocols, were not designed to capture what happens when a phone sits in a front pocket or rests directly against skin.

Europe’s testing distance has been reduced incrementally over time. The standard moved from 25 millimeters to 5 millimeters, and now to 0 millimeters. Each reduction brought the test closer to real-world conditions. The question regulators now face is what the data shows at that final, realistic distance.

76 Percent of Phones Exceeded Limits at Body Contact

The France-based wireless radiation watchdog group Phonegate Alert has campaigned for body-contact testing for nearly a decade. Its founder and president, Dr. Marc Arazi, told Children’s Health Defense’s publication The Defender that the commission’s decision is a “historic victory for European consumer protection and the culmination of nearly 10 years of campaigning against cellphone radiation testing protocols that failed to reflect real-world conditions of use.”

Phonegate Alert’s advocacy was grounded in data. The group’s whistleblowing work, combined with post-market testing conducted by French regulators, found that 76 percent of cellphones exceeded the radiation limit when held directly against the body rather than at the 5-millimeter testing distance. That figure, drawn from real-world retesting, is the core reason France filed a formal objection in 2020 against the European standard known as EN 50566:2017, which permitted the 5-millimeter gap.

Arazi told The Defender that in December 2025, the European Commission confirmed to him in writing that France’s formal objection had triggered the discussions leading to last month’s decision. The Defender reviewed the letter; Arazi requested it not be made public.

The iPhone 12 as a Test Case

France’s post-market testing program brought the issue into public view in concrete terms when French regulators found that the iPhone 12 exceeded SAR limits when tested at body contact. Apple was ordered to push a software update to reduce the phone’s transmission power. The case illustrated that a device passing certification under one set of conditions could fail under conditions that match actual use.

Children Absorb More Radiation Than Adults

The implications of the testing gap are not uniform across the population. A study published in Environmental Research in November 2018, authored by C. Fernandez, A.A. de Salles, M.E. Sears, R.D. Morris, and Devra Lee Davis, used anatomically based modeling to compare radiation absorption between child and adult heads and eyes. The findings were direct: children’s inner brain tissues absorb higher doses of radiofrequency radiation from cellphones than adults’ tissues do.

The SAM model used in standard compliance testing is based on a large adult male and does not account for the smaller skull dimensions, thinner tissue layers, or higher water content of a child’s head, all of which affect how deeply radiation penetrates and how much is absorbed. The 2018 study concluded that age-specific simulations are needed for regulatory compliance testing and called for public education on manufacturers’ advice to keep phones off the body, with particular emphasis on protecting children.

Theodora Scarato, Director of the EMF Program at Environmental Health Sciences, has highlighted that passing a SAR test does not establish long-term safety. The SAR limit was set to prevent a temperature rise of more than one degree Celsius in peripheral tissue. It was not derived from studies of long-term biological effects at lower exposure levels.

Italy’s Courts and the FCC’s Open Question

Italy’s Supreme Court has ruled in at least one case that technical compliance with SAR standards may not be sufficient to establish that a device caused no harm, a position that separates the legal question of liability from the regulatory question of certification.

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission still permits a separation distance of up to 25 millimeters for body-worn testing, significantly larger than Europe’s previous 5-millimeter standard, let alone the new 0-millimeter requirement. A federal court has ordered the FCC to revisit its testing rationale, and the agency has reopened the question of how real-world body-contact use should factor into compliance assessments. No new U.S. standard has been finalized.

The 18-Month Delay

Arazi did not frame the commission’s decision as an unqualified success. He publicly criticized the 18-month transition period, asking why manufacturers were being given until March 2028 when regulators have been aware of the testing gap for years. France’s formal objection was filed in 2020. The post-market data showing widespread non-compliance at body contact has been available since Phonegate Alert first began publishing it.

The commission’s position is that manufacturers need time to retest existing product lines and adjust designs where necessary. That argument is practical. But as Arazi’s question implies, the timeline also means that phones sold in Europe between now and March 2028 will continue to be certified under a standard that does not match the conditions under which most people use them.

What the Standard Change Does and Does Not Do

The new requirement closes the gap between testing conditions and real-world use. A phone that passes the 0-millimeter SAR test will have been evaluated under conditions that more closely reflect what happens when someone keeps a device in a shirt pocket or presses it to their ear without a gap.

What the change does not do is lower the SAR limit itself, or require manufacturers to account for the higher absorption rates documented in children. The limit remains set at a threshold designed around adult tissue temperature, using a large adult male as the reference model. Researchers including the authors of the 2018 Environmental Research study have argued that the averaging volume used to calculate SAR should be reduced and that age-specific standards are biologically warranted.

The European Commission’s decision is the most significant regulatory shift in cellphone radiation testing in years. Whether it prompts further changes, including revised limits or child-specific standards, or whether it remains the endpoint of this particular reform effort, is a question regulators in both Europe and the United States have not yet answered.

This article draws on reporting from Activist Post, Environmental Health Sciences, Children’s Health Defense / The Defender, and research published in Environmental Research (Fernandez et al., 2018).

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