LMK300WM User Manual

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For Your Safety 133

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 radiofrequency energy (RF) 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 device 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) from 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 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 devices, 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 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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User Manual - Page 134