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Section 4A: Safety 133
hazardous to the user. In such a case, FDA could require the manufacturers of
wireless phones to notify users of the health hazard and to repair, replace, or
recall the phones so that the hazard no longer exists.
Although the existing scientific data do not justify FDA regulatory actions, FDA
has urged the wireless phone industry to take a number of steps, including the
following:
Ⅲ Support needed research into possible biological effects of RF of the
type emitted by wireless phones;
Ⅲ Design wireless phones in a way that minimizes any RF exposure to the
user that is not necessary for device function; and
Ⅲ Cooperate in providing users of wireless phones with the best possible
information on possible effects of wireless phone use on human health
FDA belongs to an interagency working group of the federal agencies that have
responsibility for different aspects of RF safety to ensure coordinated efforts at
the federal level. The following agencies belong to this working group:
Ⅲ National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Ⅲ Environmental Protection Agency
Ⅲ Federal Communications Commission
Ⅲ Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Ⅲ National Telecommunications and Information Administration
The National Institutes of Health participates in some interagency working
group activities, as well.
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.
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