LG G8X ThinQ - Page 185

For Your Safety 184
The FDA belongs to an interagency working group of the federal agencies that
have responsibility for different aspects of RF safety to ensure coordinated efforts
atthefederallevel.Thefollowingagenciesbelongtothisworkinggroup:
• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Environmental Protection Agency
• OccupationalSafetyandHealthAdministration(Administracióndelaseguridad
ysaludlaborales)
• 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 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radiofrequency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 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.