Siemens MC60 User Manual page 66

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66 U.S. FDA
associated with use of mobile
phones. FDA continues to work with
all parties, including other federal
agencies and industry, to assure that
research is undertaken to provide
the necessary answers to the
outstanding questions about the
safety of mobile phones.
What is known about cases of human
cancer that have been reported in users
of hand-held mobile phones?
Some people who have used mobile
phones have been diagnosed with
brain cancer. But it is important to
understand that this type of cancer
also occurs among people who have
not used mobile phones. In fact,
brain cancer occurs in the U.S.
population at a rate of about 6 new
cases per 100,000 people each year.
At that rate, assuming 80 million
users of mobile phones (a number
increasing at a rate of about 1
million per month), about 4800
cases of brain cancer would be
expected each year among those 80
million people, whether or not they
used their phones. Thus it is not
possible to tell whether any
individual's cancer arose because of
the phone, or whether it would have
happened anyway. A key question is
whether the risk of getting a
particular form of cancer is greater
among people who use mobile
phones than among the rest of the
population. One way to answer that
question is to compare the usage of
mobile phones among people with
brain cancer with the use of mobile
phones among appropriately
matched people without brain
cancer. This is called a case-control
study. The current case-control
study of brain cancers by the
National Cancer Institute, as well as
the follow-up research to be
sponsored by industry, will begin to
generate this type of information.
What is FDA's role concerning the safety
of mobile phones?
Under the law, FDA does not review
the safety of radiation emitting
consumer products such as mobile
phones before marketing, as it does
with new drugs or medical devices.
However, the agency has authority
to take action if mobile phones are
shown to emit radiation at a level
that is hazardous to the user. In such
a case, FDA could require the
manufacturers of mobile phones to
notify users of the health hazard and
to repair, replace or recall the
phones so that the hazard no longer
exists.
Although the existing scientific data
do not justify FDA regulatory actions
at this time, FDA has urged the
mobile phone industry to take a
number of steps to assure public
safety. The agency has
recommended that the industry: