The Fine Print of Safety24 September 2019
When consumers are in their home, or at an airport, or at a shopping mall, they generally assume the products around them are safe. So when long-range wireless power is introduced into consumer environments, consumers would be justified in assuming that the particular method of power delivery is also safe.
Specifically, wireless power should be:
- Safe at any distance. Saying “the product is usually safe but don’t get closer than 50 cm to it” is not good enough.
- Safe for consumers. The regulators define various safety levels such as safe for industrial use, safe for consumer use and so on. Fudging this certification – claiming that products are safe for consumers whereas, in fact, they don’t have this certification – is misleading at best.
Beyond the regulatory requirements, common sense is always a great asset. Is it a good idea to stand next to a transmitter sending 500 Watts of energy? Is it wise to consider technology that baths the environment with lots of unwanted radiation – as opposed to one that delivers energy with pinpoint accuracy?