# ICNIRP 2020 local SAR basic restriction (head and torso)

> 2 W/kg averaged over 10 grams of tissue for the general public — a different averaging mass than the FCC's 1 g, which is why SAR numbers are not directly comparable between regions.

- Canonical URL: https://emfbase.com/limits/icnirp-local-sar-limit
- Collection: Exposure limits
- Record id: `limits:icnirp-2020-sar-local`
- Status: verified
- Last verified: 2026-08-12
- JSON: https://emfbase.com/api/limits/icnirp-local-sar-limit

## Key values

- **Limit value:** 2 W/kg — Guideline value — scientific recommendation — Local SAR head/torso, 10 g cube average. Limb local SAR is 4 W/kg; whole-body average is 0.08 W/kg. [icnirp-2020]
- **Quantity:** specific absorption rate
- **Frequency band:** 100 kHz–6 GHz
- **Population:** general public
- **Set by:** ICNIRP 2020 RF guidelines (100 kHz–300 GHz) (2020)
- **Kind:** Guideline — scientific recommendation
- **Averaging time:** 6 minutes — A measurement must use the same averaging before it can be compared with this value.

## Related records

- [FCC SAR limit for phones and portable devices](https://emfbase.com/limits/fcc-sar-limit-phones): 1.6 W/kg averaged over any 1 gram of tissue — the number quoted on U.S. phone SAR sheets — plus 0.08 W/kg whole-body.

## Sources

- `icnirp-2020` International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (2020). *Guidelines for Limiting Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields (100 kHz to 300 GHz)*. https://www.icnirp.org/en/publications/article/rf-guidelines-2020.html — guideline, link checked 2026-08-12

Data licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Dataset version 2026.08.1. Retrieved from EMFBase, https://emfbase.com.

This record is reference data, not medical or legal advice. Regulatory limits, scientific guidelines and precautionary values are labelled separately and answer different questions.