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73
for safety questions about wireless
phones.
The 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 handheld 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 FCC
safety guidelines that were developed
with the advice of the 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
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