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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 built-in
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 with increasing distance
from the source. The so-called
‘cordless phones,’ which have
a base unit connected to the
telephone wiring in a house,
typically operate at far lower
power levels, and thus produce
RF exposures far below the FCC
safety limits.
4. What are the results of the
research done already?
The research done thus far has
produced conflicting results,
and many studies have suffered
from flaws in their research
methods. Animal experiments
investigating the effects of
radiofrequency energy (RF)
exposures characteristic of
wireless phones have yielded
conflicting results that often