LG GS170 - Manual (Page 18)

16 GS170 | User Guide
For Your Safety
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ar 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 Communica-
tions Commission (FCC). All phones that are
sold in the United States must comply 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
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
confl icting results, and many studies have
suffered from fl aws in their research methods.
Animal experiments investigating the effects
of Radio Frequency (RF) energy exposures
characteristic of wireless phones have yielded
confl icting 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