LG Electronics IP3100 manual What kinds of phones are the subject of this update?

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United States must comply with FCC safety guide- lines that limit RF exposure. FCC relies on FDA and other health agencies for safety questions about wireless phones.

FCC also regulates the base stations that the wire- less 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 hand-held 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 dis- tance between the phone and the user’s head.

These RF exposures are limited by Federal Communications Commission safety guidelines that were developed with the advice of 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 per- son's RF exposure decreases rapidly with increasing distance from the source. The so-called "cordless

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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 investi- gating 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 pub- lished since December 2000. Between them, the studies investigated any possible association

Chapter 6

Safety Guidelines

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