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Safety
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
Radio Frequency (RF) energy 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 Radio Frequency (RF) energy exposures
characteristic of wireless phones have yielded conflicting
results that often cannot be repeated in other laboratories.
A few animal studies, however, have suggested that low
levels of RF could accelerate the development of cancer in
laboratory animals. However, many of the studies that
showed increased tumor development used animals that
had been genetically engineered or treated with cancer-
causing chemicals so as to be pre-disposed to develop
cancer in the absence of RF exposure. Other studies
exposed the animals to RF for up to 22 hours per day. These
conditions are not similar to the conditions under which
people use wireless phones, so we don’t know with
certainty what the results of such studies mean for human
health. Three large epidemiology studies have been
published since December 2000. Between them, the
studies investigated any possible association between the
use of wireless phones and primary brain cancer, glioma,
meningioma, or acoustic neuroma, tumors of the brain or
salivary gland, leukemia, or other cancers. None of the
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