LGH820 User Manual

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For Your Safety 163

TheFCCalsoregulatesthebasestationsthatthewirelessphonenetworksrely

upon. While these base stations operate at higher power than do the wireless

phones themselves, the RF exposures that people get from these base stations are

typically thousands of times lower than those they can get from wireless phones.

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 built-in

antennas,oftencalled“cell”,“mobile”,or“PCS”phones.Thesetypesofwireless

phones can expose the user to measurable Radio Frequency (RF) energy 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 Radio Frequency (RF) energy 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 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

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. However, none of the studies can answer questions about long-term

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User Manual - Page 164