Nokia 2285 User Manual page 98

Appendix B
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 subject of the safety questions discussed in this document.
3. 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
radiofrequency 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 far below the FCC
safety limits.
4. 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 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 phone 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.
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