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FDA and other health agencies for safety questions about wireless express cards.
FCC also regulates the base stations that the wireless express card networks rely
upon. While these base stations operate at higher power than do the wireless
express cards themselves, the RF exposures that people get from these base
stations are typically thousands of times lower than those they can get from
wireless express cards. Base stations are thus not the primary subject of the safety
questions discussed in this document.
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 energy (RF) exposures characteristic of wireless
express cards 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 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 express cards, so we don't 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 express cards and primary brain cancer, glioma, meningioma, or acoustic
neuroma, tumors of the brain or salivary gland, leukemia, or other cancers. None of
the studies demonstrated the existence of any harmful health effects from wireless
express cards RF exposures. However, none of the studies can answer questions
about long-term exposures, since the average period of express card use in these
studies was around three years.
What research is needed to decide whether RF exposure from wireless
express cards poses a health risk?
A combination of laboratory studies and epidemiological studies of people actually
using wireless express cards would provide some of the data that are needed.
Lifetime animal exposure studies could be completed in a few years. However, very
large numbers of animals would be needed to provide reliable proof of a cancer
promoting effect if one exists. Epidemiological studies can provide data that is
directly applicable to human populations, but ten or more years' follow-up may be
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