For Your Safety
72
Environmental Protection
Agency
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration
National Telecommunications
and Information Administration
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 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
(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
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