If an iPhone is no longer connected to a wireless service, will it still emit radiation?

Yes, emmissions would typically peak when the wifi or cellular radio are in active use (and when the speaker is also in active use) - but it would be be so for either voice or data transmissions.

So, you would presumably have the lowest possible emissions if the device was in airplane mode, with both wifi and cellular radios powered off.

I have no idea what the emissions of the camera chip would be while in use, but yes, I'd suspect they would be less than the wifi or cellular radios would be.

However, remember that emissions drop as the square of distance from the emitter, so holding the phone up and away from the body for use as a camera, even with wifi on, is likely only a very small exposure (e.g. hold the device ten times further away from you, and the emissions drop by a factor of 100). The perceived risk of emissions, if there actually are any, comes from people who have their device in active use, glued to their ear, for many hours of the day.

Simply using a cabled headset and keeping the device in a pocket massively reduces the actual exposure to the user as well, just by not having the phone's earpiece right against your ear (or using speaker phone and keeping the phone a couple of feet from you).

As just a camera though - turn on airplane mode, and that's about as much as you can do to reduce emissions, and it should reduce them quite a bit. And the iphone 5 does have a better camera then the 4, and can run a newer iOS than the 4 as well.

The phone, and any other computing device as well as radio devices, emit at least some radiation whenever they are energized, that is powered on. If your child uses a laptop, desktop, electronic toys, gaming console, solid state photo camera, video camera, telephone, radio, TV, a simple cooling fan - all of those emit some background electromagnetic radiation when powered on.

There is no such thing as a non-emmission consumer electronic device. All Apple electronic devices meet or exceed government imposed safe limits on electromagnetic emmissions.

http://www.apple.com/legal/rfexposure/

ALL devices that use electricity emit "radiation". If you're concerned that emissions from common electronic devices may be harmful to your child, please have a conversation with your physician about the safety of such devices.

misalodesign wrote:

Okay, let me rephrase the question: does disconnecting the iphone from a wireless phone service significantly reduce the amount of radiation emitted? From every stat I've seen on the topic, iPhones are on the top of the list for highest amounts of radiation when using the wireless phone service. Government-imposed safe limits are based on an adult, not children so, what "may" be safe for an adult will not be safe for a child.

You need to understand the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is the stuff you get from nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. It's what causes radiation sickness and certain types of cancer. This is documented science. Non-ionizing radiation of the type emitted by cell phones has never been shown to cause cancer. In fact, brain cancer rates have not increased since the cell phones were invented. Just because the U.S. government which is not known for its lawmakers having a strong understanding of science, doesn't mean much of anything.

What does seem to be bad, for children especially, about things like cell phones, tablets and computers is that the time they spend with those devices is time they don't spend in active, interactive play and exercise.

When you disconnect the phone the networks that are transmitting keep transmitting. But the phone is not able to receive them any more.

A phone only transmits when it is on a call.

It doesn't matter what it's connected to. It can transmit to thin air. If you wish to turn off all transmitters, turn on Airplane Mode in Settings.

You will need to fit a SIM card in order to activate it, don't forget that.

It will not activate at all if there is no SIM, whether or not you intend to use it.