LG LGBP6100 User Manual

Page 82

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lowing agencies belong to this working group:

G

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

G

Environmental Protection Agency

G

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

G

National Telecommunications and Information Administration

The National Institutes of Health participates in some intera-

gency working group activities, as well.

The FDA shares regulatory responsibilities for wireless phones

with the Federal Communications 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 energy (RF) 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 increas-

ing 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 pro-

duce 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 investigating the effects of Radio Frequency

energy (RF) exposures characteristic of wireless phones have yield-

ed conflicting results that often cannot be repeated in other labora-

tories. A few animal studies, however, have suggested that low lev-

els of RF could accelerate the development of cancer in laboratory

BP6100

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