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At the same time, FDA belongs to an interagency working
group of the federal agencies that have responsibility for
different aspects of mobile phone safety to ensure a coordi-
nated effort at the federal level. These agencies are:
•
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
•
Environmental Protection Agency
•
Federal Communications Commission
•
Occupational Health and Safety Administration
•
National Telecommunications and Information
Administration
The National Institutes of Health also participates in this
group.
In the absence of conclusive information about any pos-
sible risk, what can concerned individuals do?
If there is a risk from these products--and at this point we do
not know that there is--it is probably very small. But if peo-
ple are concerned about avoiding even potential risks, there
are simple steps they can take to do so. For example, time is
a key factor in how much exposure a person receives. Those
persons who spend long periods of time on their hand-held
mobile phones could consider holding lengthy conversa-
tions on conventional phones and reserving the hand-held
models for shorter conversations or for situations when
other types of phones are not available.
People who must conduct extended conversations in their
cars every day could switch to a type of mobile phone that
places more distance between their bodies and the source
of the RF, since the exposure level drops off dramatically
with distance. For example, they could switch to:
•
A mobile phone in which the antenna is located out-
side the vehicle,
•
A hand-held phone with a built-in antenna connected
to a different antenna mounted on the outside of the
car or built into a separate package, or
•
A headset with a remote antenna to a mobile phone
carried at the waist.
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