Safety Guidelines
The National Institutes of Health participates in some interagency
working group activities, as well.
The FDA shares regulatory responsibilities for wireless phones with
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). All phones that
are sold in the United States must comply with FCC safety
guidelines that limit RF exposure. The FCC relies on the FDA and
other health agencies for safety questions about wireless phones.
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
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.
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