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U.S. FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration's (FDA) Center
for Devices and Radiological
Health Consumer Update on
Mobile Phones
FDA has been receiving inquiries about
the safety of mobile phones, including
cellular phones and PCS phones. The fol-
lowing summarizes what is know – and
what remains unknown – about whether
these products can pose a hazard to
health, and what can be done to mini-
mize any potential risk. This information
may be used to respond to questions.
Why the concern?
Mobile phones emit low levels of radio
frequency energy (i.e., radio frequency
radiation) in the microwave range while
being used. They also emit very low lev-
els of radio frequency energy (RF), con-
sidered non-significant, when in the
stand-by mode. It is well known that
high levels of RF can produce biological
damage through heating effects (this is
how your microwave oven is able to
cook food). However, it is not known
whether, to what extent, or through
what mechanism, lower levels of RF
might cause adverse health effects as
well. Although some research has been
done to address these questions, no
clear picture of the biological effects of
this type of radiation has emerged to
date. Thus, the available science does
not allow us to conclude that mobile
phones are absolutely safe, or that they
are unsafe. However, the available scien-
tific evidence does not demonstrate ad-
verse health effects associated with the
use of mobile phones.
What kinds of phones are in question?
Questions have been raised about hand-
held mobile phones, the kind that have a
built-in antenna that is positioned close
to the user's head during normal tele-
phone conversation. These types of mo-
bile phones are of concern because of
the short distance between the phone's
antenna – the primary source of the RF
– and the person's head. The exposure to
RF from mobile phones in which the an-
tenna is located at greater distances
from the user (on the outside of a car,
for example) is drastically lower than
that from hand-held phones, because a
person's RF exposure decreases rapidly
with distance from the source. The safe-
ty of so-called "cordless phones," which
have a base unit connected to the tele-
phone wiring in a house and which op-
erate at far lower power levels and fre-
quencies, has not been questioned.
U.S. FDA
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