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Safety
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 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