Oh my! I read that Apple has acknowledged a potential safety risk surrounding the use of its iPhone 12 series of products. In addition, Apple has also published a workaround for the “damage” caused by the interaction of its MagSafe products and iPhone 12’s. For me, the issue has to do with FCC regulations regarding consumer products and their safety when used in “customary and ordinary ways”.
A quick bit of history about FCC certifications may be called for here. Back in the dawn of consumer electronics, the FCC required that all components undergo safety testing, and radiation testing and that sample units be supplied for verification by the FCC and licensed safety labs. As the volume of products increased, these requirements were gradually relaxed in order to foster innovation and speed new products to market. At that time, commercial products (ones used in non-public exposure) were required to meet Class A certification (the laxest standard) while products aimed at consumers required Class C certification (much more stringent standards and far more testing). Class B certification was in between the two and was to apply to products used by professionals who understood the risks and how to manage them or use products of that type safely. In another move to foster innovation and reduce the cost to bring products to the American consumer market, the requirement for meeting Class C certification was altered to allow Class B devices to be marketed to the masses.
Today, the FCC allows products to be verified as meeting a specific safety class by type matching; that is, if your new product is similar to one that was previously approved or verified by any means, that new product can also be considered as verified as meeting the same safety class. So, the new iPhone 12 series products meet Class B standards by this very process. I see two issues already where this may not be appropriate. First, the magnetic field created by the iPhones may exceed safety standards by a considerable amount, and second, some of the new phone signal types (5g, 5g wideband, etc.) may also not be safe under certain circumstances.
What caught my attention was that Apple came out in response to consumer questions and suggested that folks with certain medical devices like pacemakers or insulin pumps should keep their iPhones at least 6″ distant from any such device at all times. The second point of interest for me regards an issue with the iPhones and the new MagSafe accessories. In a similar warning, Apple warned folks that exposure of the leather cases to the interaction of iPhones and the MagSafe accessories may damage the leather or any similar materials and to keep any such materials 6″ from the phones or accessories (and to replace their phone cases with units made of different materials). Realize that human skin is just one such material and I read that as “keep these products at least 6″ from your skin at all times to reduce the risk of injury to your skin.”
How serious is this? Well, if you feel any warming of skin near where you wear your phone (or any other consumer device), and particularly if the device isn’t itself warm to the touch, you definitely should be concerned for your long term health. If your medical device issues warning beeps when your phone is brought near it, no matter how occasionally, you definitely should be concerned. Neither of this kind of event should be acceptable at any time and should result in Apple products being reduced to Class A certification at best.
Personally, I suspect that this admission by Apple clearly identifies that their new products are NOT appropriately safe for consumer use, that their response is a clear statement of these products not meeting Class B standards, nor meeting any of the FCC’s categories for certifiable products. In particular, where medical devices (wearables or implanted) are concerned, those devices have reason for primary bandwidth and interference protection from all other devices and the Apple products are clearly violating this protection given customary use of these products (ie, wearing them on a hip or in a pocket or tucked into clothing) in my opinion. With luck, the FCC will review its approval of these products and cause some modifications for user safety.