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Safety
Safety
3. What kinds of phones are the subject of this update?
The term "wireless phone" refers here to handheld wireless phones with built-
in antennas, often called "cell", "mobile", or "PCS" phones. 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 FCC safety guidelines that were developed
with the advice of the 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 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. 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,
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