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17
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 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
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