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Safety
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 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
US740GSG(eng).indd 50 2010.10.12 10:39:42 AM