Dosimetric evaluation of human head for portable telephones

With explosive growth of the use of portable telephones, the public has become concerned with how the radio waves generated by the phones may affect the human body. Developed countries started setting local absorption limits and standards for body protection from the portable phones. However, different countries use different methods of evaluation for the local absorption rate of electric energy which was introduced as the evaluation criterion (SAR: Specific Absorption Rate). Generally speaking, quantitative analysis of SAR in the human body exposed to electromagnetic radiation is referred to as dosimetry. This article offers a discussion of the current situation and problems relating to dosimetry based mainly on the results of domestic and foreign research of in‐head dosimetry for portable phones. The authors also offer their views on methods of evaluation of the safety of portable telephones and identify problems to be considered in the future.