The U.s. Food And Drug Administration's Center For Devices And Radiological Health Consumer Update On Mobile Phones - Motorola iDEN i205 User Manual

The U.S. Food
and Drug
Administration's
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 following summarizes what is known —
and what remains unknown — about whether these
products can pose a hazard to health, and what can
be done to minimize any potential risk. This
information may be used to respond to questions.
Why the concern?
Mobile phones emit low levels of radiofrequency
energy (i.e., radiofrequency radiation) in the
microwave range while being used. They also emit
very low levels of radiofrequency energy (RF),
considered 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 scientific
evidence does not demonstrate any adverse 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
telephone conversation. These types of mobile
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 antenna 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 safety of so-called "cordless phones,"
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