Filter
Top Products
93
3. What kinds of phones are the sub-
ject 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, 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 predisposed 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 such studies
mean for human health.