Nokia 9290 - Manual (Page 335)

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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 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 distance 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 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 conflicting results, and many studies have suffered from flaws
in their research methods. Animal experiments investigating 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 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 phone 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.