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20
Safety Guidelines
3. What kinds of phones are the subject of this update?
The term ‘wireless phone’ refers here to handheld wireless phones with builtin
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 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 predisposed 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.
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