Mitsubishi Trium T300 User Manual page 17

use of mobile phones. FDA continues to
work with all parties, including other
federal agencies and industry, to assure
that research is undertaken to provide the
necessary answers to the outstanding
questions about the safety of mobile
phones.
What is known about cases of
human cancer that have been
reported in users of hand-held
mobile phones?
Some people who have used mobile
phones have been diagnosed with brain
cancer. But it is important to understand
that this type of cancer also occurs among
people who have not used mobile phones.
In fact, brain cancer occurs in the U.S.
population at a rate of about 6 new cases
per 100,000 people each year. At that
rate, assuming 80 million users of mobile
phones (a number increasing at a rate of
about 1 million per month), about 4800
cases of brain cancer would be expected
each year among those 80 million people,
whether or not they used their phones.
Thus it is not possible to tell whether any
individual's cancer arose because of the
phone, or whether
happened anyway.
A key question is whether the risk of
getting a particular form of cancer is
greater among people who use mobile
phones than among the rest of the popu-
lation. One way to answer that question is
to compare the usage of mobile phones
among people with brain cancer with the
use of mobile phones among appropri-
ately matched people without brain
cancer. This is called a case-control study.
The current case-control study of brain
cancers by the National Cancer Institute,
as well as the follow-up research to be
sponsored by industry, will begin to
generate this type of information.
What is FDA's role concerning the
safety of mobile phones?
Under the law, FDA does not review the
safety of radiation-emitting consumer
products such as mobile phones before
marketing, as it does with new drugs or
medical devices. However, the agency has
authority to take action if mobile phones
are shown to emit radiation at a level that
is hazardous to the user. In such a case,
FDA could require the manufacturers of
mobile phones to notify users of the
it would have
health hazard and to repair, replace or
recall the phones so that the hazard no
longer exists.
Although the existing scientific data do
not justify FDA regulatory actions at this
time, FDA has urged the mobile phone
industry to take a number of steps to
assure public safety. The agency has rec-
ommended that the industry:
support needed research into possible
n
biological effects of RF of the type
emitted by mobile phones
design mobile phones in a way that
n
minimizes any RF exposure to the user
that is not necessary for device function
cooperate in providing mobile phone
n
users with the best possible information
on what is known about possible
effects of mobile phone use on human
health.
At the same time, FDA belongs to an inter-
agency working group of the federal
agencies that have responsibility for dif-
ferent aspects of mobile phone safety to
ensure a coordinated effort at the federal
level. These agencies are:
National Institute
n
Safety and Health
Environmental Protection Agency
n
Federal Communications Commission
n
Occupational Health and Safety Admin-
n
istration
National Telecommunications and Infor-
n
mation Administration
The National Institutes of Health also
participates in this group.
In the absence of conclusive
information about any possible 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 people 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 reserv-
ing the hand-held models for shorter
conversations or for situations when other
types of phones are not available.
for Occupational
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