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
socalled
'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 confl icting results, and
many studies have suffered from
fl aws in their research methods.
Animal experiments investigating
the effects of radiofrequency energy
(RF) exposures characteristic of
wireless phones have yielded
confl icting 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
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