Radiophobia!

One concern (we won’t call you paranoid) about Device Factory products is the radiation levels being produced, especially if the device is going to be used on infants.  Before you question why our devices radiate, please note that many house hold products do so already: that wireless mouse in your hand, the TV remote, mobile phones, and even baby monitors.  The devices that are commonly used around the home are using low power radio waves, including the ones we manufacture which are based on the new Bluetooth Low Energy technology (BLE).  However, not all radiation is the same.

Radiation of radio frequency (RF) devices is measured by Special Absorption Rate (SAR).  This is a measure of the rate at which energy is absorbed by the body when exposed to a radio frequency electromagnetic field.  It is defined as the power absorbed per mass of tissue and has units of watts per kilogram (W/Kg).  A general rule is that the higher emission power, the higher the SAR measurement.

Here are some typical measurements of SAR for different RF emitting devices:

• Cellphones in US are limited to 1.6W/Kg by regulation
• Apple iPhone 4 : 1.17W/Kg
• Baby monitors  range between 0.01-0.08W/Kg
• Bluetooth devices about 0.001W/Kg

There is no public measurement data found for Bluetooth Low Energy yet, but given BLE has an even lower power emission than the standard Bluetooth, the SAR number should be insignificant in comparison.

Bluetooth technology has such an insignificant radiation level that in fact, this is one of the reasons why Bluetooth earpieces became popular after radiation concerns while using cellphones echoed across the internet.

Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy technologies are both using 2.4-2.5GHz band, which is the same as the common FM radio.