Samsung SPH-M910CAAVMU - Manual (Page 129)

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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. FCC relies on FDA and other
health agencies for safety questions about wireless
phones.
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 primary subject of the
safety questions discussed in this document.
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
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 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
published since December 2000. Between them, the
studies investigated any possible association between
the use of wireless phones and primary brain cancer,
glioma, meningioma, or acoustic neuroma, tumors of
the brain or salivary gland, leukemia, or other
cancers. None of the studies demonstrated the
existence of any harmful health effects from wireless
phones RF exposures.
However, none of the studies can answer questions
about long-term exposures, since the average period
of phone use in these studies was around three years.
What research is needed to decide whether RF
exposure from wireless phones poses a health
risk?
A combination of laboratory studies and
epidemiological studies of people actually using
wireless phones would provide some of the data that
are needed. Lifetime animal exposure studies could
be completed in a few years.