BlackBerry Bold Emits Highest Radiation Levels

Worried about cooking your brain through heavy cell phone use? Or, interested in cooking your breakfast with your smartphone? Then you might want to look into the BlackBerry Bold, which, according to the Environmental Working Group, has the dubious honor of having the highest legal levels of radiation among smartphones.

The Bold is followed in its free radical leadership role by the Motorola Droid, LG Chocolate and the Google Nexus One.

While acknowledging the topic is far from settled science, the EWG did say that “we’re troubled by recent studies that have found significantly higher risks for brain and salivary gland tumors among people using cell phones for 10 years or longer,” in a statement releasing the rankings.

The radiation absorption rate used to establish the rankings is measured in Watts absorbed per kilogram of human tissue. The FCC’s guidelines for how much absorption is legal allows 20 times more radiation to penetrate the head than the rest of the body, with no special guidelines for children. The limit is 1.6 Wpkg; BlackBerry Bold 9700 came in with a 1.55 Wpkg. The Droid was marginally less irradiating at 1.5 Wpkg, the LG Chocolate scored 1.46 Wpkg and Nexus One came in at 1.39 Wpkg.

Not all BlackBerries emit high levels. The BlackBerry Storm 9530 has a rating of 0.57 Wpkg, and the BlackBerry Storm2 9550 has a 1.01 W/kg rating.

The iPhone 3G, in case you’re wondering, measured a comparatively low 1.19 Wpkg.

A good argument for texting vs. calling? Perhaps.

All the results can be found here.