LG LGBP6100 Manual page 82

lowing agencies belong to this working group:
G
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
G Environmental Protection Agency
G
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
G
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
The National Institutes of Health participates in some intera-
gency 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 energy (RF) 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 increas-
ing 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 pro-
duce 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
energy (RF) exposures characteristic of wireless phones have yield-
ed conflicting results that often cannot be repeated in other labora-
tories. A few animal studies, however, have suggested that low lev-
els of RF could accelerate the development of cancer in laboratory
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