80
Safety Guidelines
If you must conduct extended conversations by
wireless phone every day, you could place more
distance between your body and the source of the
RF, since the exposure level drops off dramatically
with distance. For example, you could use a headset
and carry the wireless phone away from your body or
use a wireless phone connected to a remote antenna.
Again, the scientific data do not demonstrate that
wireless phones are harmful. But if you are
concerned about the RF exposure from these
products, you can use measures like those
described above to reduce your RF exposure from
wireless phone use.
10. What about children using wireless phones?
The scientific evidence does not show a danger to
users of wireless phones, including children and
teenagers. If you want to take steps to lower
exposure to radiofrequency energy (RF), the
measures described above would apply to
children and teenagers using wireless phones.
Reducing the time of wireless phone use and
increasing the distance between the user and the
RF source will reduce RF exposure.
Some groups sponsored by other national
governments have advised that children be
discouraged from using wireless phones at all. For
example, the government in the United Kingdom
distributed leaflets containing such a recommendation
in December 2000. They noted that no evidence
exists that using a wireless phone causes brain
tumors or other ill effects. Their recommendation
to limit wireless phone use by children was strictly
precautionary; it was not based on scientific
evidence that any health hazard exists.
11. What about wireless phone interferencewith medical equipment?
Radio frequency energy (RF) from wireless phones
can interact with some electronic devices. For this
reason, the FDA helped develop a detailed test
method to measure electromagnetic interference
(EMI) of implanted cardiac pacemakers and
defibrillators from wireless telephones. This test
method is now part of a standard sponsored by
the Association for the Advancement of Medical
instrumentation (AAMI). The final draft, a joint
effort by the FDA, medical device manufacturers