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Safety Guidelines
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
radiofrequency 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
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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 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
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