This study presents a numerical analysis of specific absorption rate (SAR) and temperature distributions in the realistic human head model exposed to mobile phone radiation at 900 MHz and 1800 MHz. In the realistic human head model, the effects of operating frequency and gap distance between the mobile phone and the human head on distributions of specific absorption rate and temperature profile within the human head are systematically investigated. This study focuses attention on each tissue in the human head in order to investigate the effects of mobile phone radiation on the human head. The SAR and the temperature distribution in various tissues in human head during exposed to mobile phone radiation, obtained by numerical solution of electromagnetic wave propagation and unsteady bioheat transfer equations, are presented. For both frequencies, the highest SAR values are obtained in the region of the skin near the antenna. It is found that the highest SAR values are 0.823 W/kg and 1.187 W/kg for the frequencies of 900 MHz and 1800 MHz, respectively. The SAR values obtained from this study are well below ICNIRP limit for all cases. In addition, it is found that the temperature distributions are not directly proportional to the local SAR values. Moreover, the experimental validation has been carried out by using the infrared camera in order to complement the simulation results. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.