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For Your Safety 163
3. What kinds of devices are the subject of this update?
The term “wireless device”refers here to handheld wireless devices with built-in
antennas, often called “cell,” “mobile,” or “PCS” devices. These types of wireless
devices can expose the user to measurable Radio Frequency (RF) energy because of
the short distance between the device 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 device
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 devices,” 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 Radio Frequency (RF) energy exposures characteristic of wireless devices
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 devices, so we do not 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 devices 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 device RF exposures. However, none of the
studies can answer questions about long-term exposures, since the average period
of device use in these studies was around three years.
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