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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
socalled “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 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
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