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claimed to protect wireless phone users from radiation with making
false and unsubstantiated claims. According to FTC, these defendants
lacked a reasonable basis to substantiate their claim.
8. What about wireless phone interference with medical equipment?
Radio frequency energy (RF) from wireless phones can interact with
some electronic devices. For this reason, FDA helped develop a detailed
test method to measure electromagnetic interference (EMI) of
implanted cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators from wireless
telephones. This test method is now part of a standard sponsored by
the Association for the Advancement of Medical instrumentation
(AAMI). The final draft, a joint effort by FDA, medical device
manufacturers, and many other groups, was completed in late 2000.
This standard will allow manufacturers to ensure that cardiac
pacemakers and defibrillators are safe from wireless phone EMI.
FDA has tested hearing aids for interference from handheld wireless
phones and helped develop a voluntary standard sponsored by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). This standard
specifies test methods and performance requirements for hearing aids
and wireless phones so that no interference occurs when a person uses
a compatible phone and a compatible hearing aid at the same time.
This standard was approved by the IEEE in 2000.
FDA continues to monitor the use of wireless phones for possible
interactions with other medical devices. Should harmful interference be
found to occur, FDA will conduct testing to assess the interference and
work to resolve the problem.
9. 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 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.
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