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Health and Safety Information 114
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 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 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 phones 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.
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 cancer promoting effect if
one exists. Epidemiological studies can provide data that is directly applicable to human populations, but ten or
more years' follow-up may be needed to provide answers about some health effects, such as cancer.
This is because the interval between the time of exposure to a cancer-causing agent and the time tumors develop -
if they do - may be many, many years. The interpretation of epidemiological studies is hampered by difficulties in
measuring actual RF exposure during day-to-day use of wireless phones. Many factors affect this measurement,
such as the angle at which the phone is held, or which model of phone is used.