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Health and Safety Information
137
to ensure coordinated efforts at the federal level. The following
agencies belong to this working group:
l National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
l Environmental Protection Agency
l Federal Communications Committee
l Occupational Safety and Health Administration
The National Institutes of Health participates in some interagency
working group activities, as well.
FDA shares regulatory responsibilities about 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 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