Nokia 7280 User Manual page 99

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 hand-held wireless phones with built-in
antennas, often called cell mobile or PCS phones. These types of wireless phones
can expose the user to measurable radiofrequency energy (RF) because of the
short distance between the phone and the user's head. These RF exposures
are limited by Federal Communications Commission safety guidelines that
were developed with the advice of 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 increasing 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 produce 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 radiofrequency energy (RF) exposures
characteristic of wireless phones 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 the 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 phones, 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 phones 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 phone RF exposures. However, none of the
studies can answer questions about long-term exposures, since the average
period of phone use in these studies was around three years.
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