Low radiation cell phones are more desirable because of health concerns, but which ones pose the least risk, especially to children and other vulnerable users?

While American cell phone manufacturers have reluctantly begun to voluntarily release emission levels on specific phones, it’s still a daunting task to determine which phone is the healthiest of all, or even if the phone you own is relatively safe, safer, or safest. It would be nice if U.S. laws required cell phone manufacturers to include radiation information on their printed materials and advertising, but they don’t – and probably won’t anytime soon.

Cell phones, PDAs, and Smartphones, as a generic species of electronic device, do raise health concerns – such as the risk of cancer due to exposure to radiation. Recent studies have found significant increases in salivary gland and brain tumors in consumers using cell phones, especially over long periods such as a decade or more. Excessive use of radiation-emitting devices, such as cell phones (but not limited to cell phones) pose special dangers to children because their skin is softer and their skulls less developed – and less able to protect their younger brains from excessive radiation. A child’s brain can absorb up to twice as much radiation as an adult’s brain. Commercial interests involved with the manufacture and distribution of cell phones and similar electronic devices – perhaps the most lucrative commercial enterprise geared to consumers in decades -- don’t wish to "rock the boat" with more conclusive studies. The very idea that the ubiquitous cell phone might pose health risks is controversial, especially to capitalists – somewhat in the way that Global Warming was just a few years ago.

But while American industry and regulators are quite passive when it comes to these touchy topics, governments in the UK, France, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, and Israel have cautioned their citizens against excessive cell phone use, especially by children. As far as radiation emitters, the worst offenders are manufactured by Motorola and distributed by Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular. Among ten phones that emit the most radiation, half are Motorola phones, two are T-Mobile, two are Blackberries, and the odd phone out is a Kyocera Jax distributed by Virgin Mobile. Another Motorola model, the RAZR V8 distributed by Cellular ONE, ranks among the safest phones, oddly enough. Except for that RAZR model, five of the six safest phones are various models produced by Samsung.