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Occupational Safety and Health •
Administration
National Telecommunications and •
Information Administration
The National Institutes of Health
participates in some interagency
working group activities, as well.
The FDA shares regulatory
responsibilities for wireless
phones with the Federal
Communications Commission
(FCC). All phones that are sold in
the United States must comply
with FCC safety guidelines that
limit RF exposure. The FCC relies
on the FDA and other health
agencies for safety questions
about wireless phones.
The FCC also regulates the base
stations that the wireless phone
networks rely upon. While these
base stations operate at higher
power than do the wireless
phones themselves, the RF
exposures that people get from
these base stations are typically
thousands of times lower than
those they can get from wireless
phones. Base stations are thus
not the subject of the safety
questions discussed in this
document.
3. What kinds of phones are the
subject of this update?
The term ‘wireless phone’
refers here to handheld wireless
phones with builtin antennas,
often called ‘cell’, ‘mobile’, or
‘PCS’ phones. These types of
wireless phones can expose
the user to measurable
radiofrequency energy (RF)
because of the short distance
between the phone and the
user’s head. These RF exposures
are limited by FCC safety
guidelines that were developed
with the advice of the FDA and
other federal health and safety
agencies. When the phone is
located at greater distances
from the user, the exposure to
RF is drastically lower because a
person’s RF exposure decreases
rapidly
Safety Guidelines