a phone that’s 3 years old

Correct. This article pertains to the three year old iPhone that was discontinued two days ago. You understand that Apple doesn’t just sell base model iPhones for one year, right? They are sold for two additional refresh cycles. So the iPhone 12 was still being officially sold by Apple until two days ago. Just like how the iPhone 13 will continue being sold until next year when the iPhone 16 comes out.

If this is confirmed they will probably need to recall and replace a significant percentage of all the phones they sold 3 years ago. in the last 3 years.

Edit: made comment more accurate.

The next question is if these countries will require apple to refund or replace each of these devices.

Sending high doses of EM into the body can cause cells to overheat, which can cause localised cell death, micro scarring, and from the body’s repair issues, skin cancer.

The iPhone won’t harm you unless you have some kind of heat dissipation disease, and that’s because the limits were intentionally chosen to be much lower than actual dangerous levels.

However, if we ignore rhse safe levels because they’re not directly harmful, every phone would use higher and higher radiation doses to get better reception. The regulations are there for a reason and every company has to abide by them.

The iPhone 12 (just the 12, not the Pro/Max/Mini/whatever) sends 5.74 W/kg into the body, where 4 W/kg is allowed. Normal muscle operation coincides with about 3-5 W/kg. That means that you could get specific tissue issues when you’re exercising on a hot day, as you’re basically dumping twice the heat of normal body operation into a small part of your body.

It’s not like you’ll get cancer immediately, but if you use smartphones for years, this limit becomes a more pressing issue. Unless something changes drastically, we’ll probably be using mobile wireless devices for the decades, and there’s a good chance those devices will radiate the same small area for years (for example, the skin next to your pants’ pockets).

Furthermore, this measure only considers raw energy transfer. Molecules are sensitive to very specific electromagnetic frequencies (for example, water really likes 2.4GHz, which is how microwaves work). This actually makes the effect potentially worse than the W/kg limit may suggest, but the high safety margin should still protect you.

Another interesting point: the SAR limit in the EU is 4 W/kg, while the acceptable rate in India and the USA is 1.6 W/kg. The measurement methods aren’t exactly the same, but every country agrees to take a rather conservative limit, for good reason when it comes to long term exposure.

They don’t measure emission but body absorption. Body limit is 2 W/kg, limbs limit is 4 W/kg. Apparently only the latter limit is violated.

For meat sacks like us it primarily translates to heat. At frequencies used, this radiation can nudge molecules a bit, which directly translates to heating up. If it was in a hundreds of watts, we’d be approaching microwave ovens territory.

The limits are there because there’s a limit to how much heat a body can efficiently dissipate, and quite a few sources of it. There’s also a concern that localized RF heating can cause cancer, which is not empirically confirmed. I personally care more about a confirmed issue of the nuclear ball in the sky causing one.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/france-demands-apple-pull-iphone-12-due-to-high-rf-radiation-levels/amp/

PS: Totally forgot, just by existing and occasionally eating, you’re generating roughly 1W per kilogram of body mass, probably a bit more.