FDA Consumer Update
The U. S. Food and Drug A d m i n i s t r a t i o n ’s Center
for Devices and Radiological Health Consumer
U p d a te on Mobile Phones.
1 . Do wireless phones pose a health hazard ?
The ava i l able scientific evidence does not show that any
health pro b lems are associated with using wire l e s s
phones. Th e r e is no pro o f, h oweve r, t h at wireless phones
a r e ab s o l u t e l y safe. Wi r eless phones emit low levels of
ra d i o f re q u e n cy energy (RF) in the microwave ra n g e
while being used. Th e y also emit ve ry low levels of RF
when in the standby mode. Wh e r eas high levels of RF
can produce health effects (by heating tissue),ex p o s u r e to
l ow level RF that does not produce heating effects causes
no known adve r se health effects. Many studies of low
l evel RF ex p o s u r es have not found any biological effe c t s .
Some studies have suggested that some biological effe c t s
m a y occur,but such findings have not been confi r med by
a d ditional re s e a r ch. In some cases,other re s e a r c h e r s have
had difficulty in rep r oducing those studies,or in
d e t e r mining the reasons for inconsistent re s u l t s .
2 . Wh at is the FDA's role concerning the safety of
w i reless phones?
Under the law,the FDA does not rev i ew the safety of
ra d i a tion-emitting consumer products such as wire l e s s
phones befo r e they can be sold,as it does with new dru g s
or medical devices. Howeve r,the age n c y has authority to
t a ke action if wireless phones are shown to emit
ra d i o f re q u e n cy energy (RF) at a level that is hazardous to
the user. In such a case,the FDA could re q u i re the
m a nu fa c t u re r s of wireless phones to notify users of the
health hazard and to rep a i r,rep l a c e,or recall the phones
so that the hazard no longer ex i s t s .
118 Safety guidelines
To Next Page
Loading...
