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21
•Occupational Safety and Health
Administration
•National Telecommunications and
Information Administration
The National Institutes of Health
participates in some interagency
working group activities, as well.
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.Whatkindsofphonesarethe
subjectofthisupdate?
The term ‘wireless phone’ refers
here to handheld wireless phones
with builtin 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