2023-09-12 20:05:33
The iPhone 12, the Apple phone released in 2020, can no longer be marketed in France due to exceeding the limit values on electromagnetic waves emitted and absorbed by the human body, according to the national frequency agency ( ANFR).
The authority also asks Apple to ‘implement all available means to quickly remedy this malfunction’ on copies already sold, under penalty of having to recall them, it specifies in a press release sent Tuesday evening to the AFP.
‘I have confidence in the company’s sense of responsibility to comply with our rules. My mission is to ensure they are respected. If it does not do so, I am ready to order the recall of iPhone 12s in circulation,’ declared the French Minister for Digital Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot, in an interview with Le Parisien.
He specified that bringing the smartphone into compliance ‘requires a simple software update’. Apple has 15 days to comply.
Concretely, the iPhone 12 exceeds by 1.74 W per kilogram (W/kg) the regulatory limit value corresponding to the energy that can be absorbed by the human body when the phone is held in the hand.
No established health hazard
The ANFR regularly lowers the transmitting power of smartphones. Most of the time, following a formal notice, manufacturers plan to update their devices to avoid withdrawal from marketing. But this is a first for Apple.
According to Jean-Noël Barrot, the withdrawal request might even be extended to the European market.
Contacted by AFP, Apple was not able to react immediately. The Californian giant presented its new device, the iPhone 15, on Tuesday evening, which will integrate a universal USB-C charging port to comply with European regulations.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ‘there is currently no evidence that exposure to low-intensity electromagnetic fields is dangerous for human health’, ‘despite much research’.
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