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FDA belongs to an interagency working group of the federal agencies that have
responsibility for different aspects of RF safety to ensure coordinated efforts at the
federal level. The following agencies belong to this working group:
•
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
•
Environmental Protection Agency
•
Federal Communications Commission
•
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
•
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
The National Institutes of Health participates in some interagency working group
activities, as well.
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. FCC relies on FDA
and other health agencies for safety questions about wireless phones. 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 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.
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