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Section 4: Safety Guidelines and Warranty Information
4A: Safety 121
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. FCC relies on FDA and other
health agencies for safety questions about wireless phones.
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 primary subject of the
safety questions discussed in this document.
18. 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 well
within the FCC's compliance limits.
19. 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