Safety

 

 

Agency

 

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

S

(FCC). All phones that are sold

a f

in the United States must comply

e ty

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 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

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