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Additional safety information
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3. What kinds of phones are the subject of this update?
The term wireless phone refers here to hand-held 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 Federal Communications Commission safety guidelines that were
developed with the advice of 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 pre-disposed 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.