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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
124
Safety
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
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