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FDA Consumer Update
150
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.