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Appendix C: Consumer update on
wireless phones
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
1. What kinds of phones are the subject of this
update?
The term wireless phone refers here to hand-
held 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 Federal Communications
Commission safety guidelines that were
developed with the advice of 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
well within the FCC's compliance limits.
2. Do wireless phones pose a health hazard?
The available scientific evidence does not show
that any health problems are associated with
using wireless phones. There is no proof,
however, that wireless phones are absolutely
safe. Wireless phones emit low levels of radio
frequency energy (RF) in the microwave range
while being used. They also emit very low levels
of RF when in the stand-by mode. Whereas high
levels of RF can produce health effects (by
heating tissue), exposure to low level RF that
does not produce heating effects causes no
known adverse health effects. Many studies of
low level RF exposures have not found any
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