Filter
Top Products
Safety Guidelines
86
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 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,
CP150 AT&T_ENG_080909 1904.3.30 2:49 AM ˘ ` 86