Environmental Protection
•
Agency
Occupational Safety and
•
Health Administration
Occupational Safety and
•
Health Administration
National Telecommunications
•
and Information
Administration
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.