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105
Safety Guidelines
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 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.
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,
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