User's Manual

70
Safety Guidelines
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.
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 radiofrequency energy (RF) 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 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