LG LS676 User Manual page 164

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 that had
been genetically engineered or treated with cancercausing 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 do not 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
Important Information for the LGLS676 154