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• Cooperate in providing users of wireless
phones with the best possible information
on possible effects of wireless phone use
on human health.
The FDA belongs to an interagency working
group of the federal agencies that have
responsibility for different aspects of RF
safety to ensure coordinated efforts at the
federal level. The following agencies belong
to this working group:
• National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Occupational Safety and Health
Administration
• National Telecommunications and
Information Administration
The National Institutes of Health participates
in some interagency working group activities,
as well.
The 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. The FCC relies on the
FDA and other health agencies for safety
questions about wireless phones.
The 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
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 (RF) energy 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 (RF) energy
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
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