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164
Appendix C: Consumer Update on Wireless
Phones
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
1. 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
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 telephone wiring in a house, typically operate at far lower
power levels, and thus produce RF exposures well within the FCC’s
compliance limits.
2. Do wireless phones pose a health hazard?
The available scientific evidence does not show that any health
problems are associated with using wireless phones. There is no
proof, however, that wireless phones are absolutely safe. Wireless
phones emit low levels of radio frequency energy (RF) in the
microwave range while being used. They also emit very low levels of
RF when in the stand-by mode. Whereas high levels of RF can
produce health effects (by heating tissue), exposure to low level RF
that does not produce heating effects causes no known adverse
health effects. Many studies of low level RF exposures have not
found any biological effects. Some studies have suggested that some
biological effects may occur, but such findings have not been
confirmed by additional research. In some cases, other researchers