Samsung SCH-N150 - Manual (Page 144)

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associated with use of mobile phones. FDA continues to work with all
parties, including other federal agencies and industry, to assure that
research is undertaken to provide the necessary answers to the
outstanding questions about the safety of mobile phones.
What is known about cases of human cancer that have been reported
in users of hand-held mobile phones?
Some people who have used mobile phones have been diagnosed with brain
cancer. But it is important to understand that this type of cancer also occurs
among people who have not used mobile phones. In fact, brain cancer occurs
in the U.S. population at a rate of about 6 new cases per 100,000 people each
year. At that rate, assuming 80 million users of mobile phones (a number
increasing at a rate of about 1 million per month), about 4800 cases of brain
cancer would be expected each year among those 80 million people, whether
or not they used their phones. Thus it is not possible to tell whether any
individual’s cancer arose because of the phone, or whether it would have
happened anyway. A key question is whether the risk of getting a particular
form of cancer is greater among people who use mobile phones then among
the rest of the population. One way to answer the question is to compare the
usage of mobile phones among people with brain cancer with the use of
mobile phones among appropriately matched people without brain cancer.
This is called a case-control study. The current case-control study of brain
cancers by the National Cancer Institute, as well as the follow-up research to be
sponsored by industry, will begin to generate this type of information.
What is FDA’s role concerning the safety of mobile phones?
Under the law, FDA does not review the safety of radiation-emitting consumer
products such as mobile phones before marketing, as it does with new drugs
or medical devices. However, the agency has authority to take action if mobile
phones are shown to emit radiation at a level that is hazardous to the user. In
such a case, FDA could require the manufacturers of mobile phones to notify