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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 wireless exposures that people get from these base
stations are typically thousands of times lower than those they get from
wireless phones. Base stations are thus not the subject of the safety
questions discussed in this document.
What kinds of phones are the subject of this
update?
The term “wireless phones” refers here to hand-held wireless phones with
built-in antennas, often called “cell,” “mobile,” or “PCS”. These types of
wireless phones can expose the user to measurable radio frequency 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 phone wiring in a house, typically operate at far lower per levels, and
thus produce RF exposures far below the FCC safety limits.
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 radio frequency 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
a310verizon.book Page 120 Thursday, January 9, 2003 10:43 AM