Working closely with federal health and safety agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has adopted limits for safe exposure to radio frequency (RF) energy. These limits are given in terms of a unit referred to as the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), which is a measure of the amount of radio frequency energy absorbed by the body. The FCC requires that cellular devices comply with these objective limits for safe exposure. Any cellular device at or below these SAR levels (that is, any cellphones legally sold in the U.S.) is a “safe” device, as measured by these standards. The FCC limit for public exposure is an SAR level of 1.6 watts per kilogram (1.6 W/kg).

What this means…

We’ve seen some websites that emphasized that a machine should be chosen if and only if they have an SAR level of 1.6 watts per kilogram. This is completely false and has nothing to do with any vibration machines. The FCC is the Federal Communications Commission, and are not involved with RF or EMF exposure of devices not involving the communication space. The 1.6 W/kg level of exposure is a limit set for CELLULAR DEVICES (Ex. iPhone, Galaxy S, HTC Incredible). Bottom line is, if you are perfectly capable of using a cellular device, you will have absolutely no problems using a whole body vibration machine!

It is simple to confuse yourself  the difference between the speed settings offered by the machine, and the machine’s true frequency setting. Some manufacturers use the Frequency and Speed settings interchangeably and ultimately for consumers, this can be a nightmare to understand. Frequency is the number of cycles the vibration machine can go up and down per second. If the machine is rated at 15 Hz, at the maximum speed (whatever it may be) will make the platform vibration 15 times per second.

You can have a machine rated at 16 Hz and have 99 speed settings, or a machine rated at 16 Hz but have 50 speed settings. For either machine, the maximum frequency is 16 Hz and the speed settings are irrelevant to how powerful the machine is. More speeds does not mean that it is more powerful. More speeds mean the individual increase in speed will increase the frequency less then the machine with less speed settings.