User manual

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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.
2. Do wireless phones pose a health hazard?
Current scientific evidence does not show that any health problems are associated with using wireless phones. There is
no proof, however, that wireless phones are absolutely safe. Wireless phones emit low levels of Radio Frequency (RF)
energy while operating microwave ranges (which also emit very low levels of RF when they are in standby mode).
While high levels of RF can produce health effects (by heating tissue), exposure to low-level RF that does not produce
heating effects results in no known adverse health effects. Many studies of low-level RF exposures have not uncovered
any biological effects. Although some studies have suggested that some biological effects may occur, such findings have
not been confirmed by additional research. In some cases, other researchers have had difficulty in reproducing those
studies, and/or determining the reasons for inconsistent results.
3. What are the results of the research done already?
The research conducted 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 it is largely unknown what the results of such
studies mean for human health and safety. Three large epidemiology studies have been published since December
2000. These studies investigated possible associations between the use of wireless phones and primary brain cancer
(glioma, meningioma, acoustic neuroma, other brain tumors, and salivary gland tumors), leukemia, or other types of
cancer. None of the studies demonstrated the existence of any harmful health effects from wireless phone RF exposures.
However, none of the studies can provide absolute findings about long-term exposures since the average period of
phone use in these studies was approximately three years.
4. What kinds of phones are the subjects of this update?
Here the term “wireless phone” refers 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
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