The bill aimed at reducing the digital environmental footprint was adopted by Parliament.
It is the end of a French peculiarity. Smartphone manufacturers no longer have the obligation to provide headphones with the laptop. So decided the Parliament which adopted this week the private member’s bill from Senator LR de l’Ain, Patrick Chaize, integrated into bill “Reducing the environmental footprint of digital technology in France”.
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Since 2010 and the Grenelle II law, smartphones could not “be marketed without an accessory to limit the exposure of the head to radioelectric emissions during communications.“From now on, manufacturers will only have to”ensure the availability of headphones compatible with the terminal model during its marketing period.In other words, it’s not the end of headphones, but manufacturers will no longer have the obligation to provide them with smartphones. The reason for this measure? It is ecological. “Wired headphones, which are routinely included with smartphones, are a major source of waste, even as the market for better quality headphones and listening systems, whether wired or wireless, is expanding.“, explains Patrick Chaize to the Frandroid website.
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As for the health argument which justified the obligation to provide headphones until then, “he cannot justify this source of waste“. But the elected LR recalls that “bodies of international expertise, such as the World Health Organization, have so far refuted the existence of a causal link established between exposure to electromagnetic fields produced by mobile phones and chronic pathologies“. “In any case, there is nothing to indicate that the free provision of headphones protects these intensive users more widely from the health risks identified.Adds the senator. Next step: publication of the bill in the Official Journal. It remains to be seen whether the manufacturers who will no longer supply headphones will lower their prices.
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