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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 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 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.
Three large epidemiology studies have been published since December 2000.
Between them, the studies investigated any possible association between the use
of wireless phones and primary brain cancer, glioma, meningioma, or acoustic
neuroma, tumors of the brain or salivary gland, leukemia, or other cancers. None
of the studies demonstrated the existence of any harmful health effects from
wireless phone RF exposures. However, none of the studies can answer questions
about long-term exposures, since the average period of phone use in these studies
was around three years.
5. What research is needed to decide whether RF exposure from wireless phones
poses a health risk?
A combination of laboratory studies and epidemiological studies of people
actually using wireless phones would provide some of the data that are needed.
Lifetime animal exposure studies could be completed in a few years. However,
very large numbers of animals would be needed to provide reliable proof of a
2600.ENv1_9233171.book Page 55 Tuesday, August 24, 2004 12:55 PM