Safe
ty
100
Sa
fe
ty
The FD
A shar
es
r
egula
tory
re
sponsibilitie
s for wir
ele
ss
phone
s with the F
eder
al
Comm
unica
tions Commission
(FCC). All phone
s tha
t ar
e sold
in the Unit
ed St
ate
s m
ust compl
y
with FCC safe
ty
guideline
s tha
t
limit RF e
xposur
e. The FCC r
elie
s
on the FD
A and o
ther health
agencie
s for safe
ty
que
stions
about wir
ele
ss phone
s.
The FCC also r
egula
te
s the ba
se
st
ations tha
t the wir
ele
ss phone
ne
tw
orks r
ely
upon. While the
se
ba
se st
ations oper
ate a
t higher
po
w
er than do the wir
ele
ss
phone
s themselv
es, the RF
exposur
es
tha
t people ge
t fr
om
the
se ba
se st
at
ions ar
e t
ypicall
y
thousands of time
s lo
w
er than
those the
y can ge
t fr
om wir
ele
ss
phone
s. Ba
se st
at
ions ar
e th
us
no
t the subject of the safe
ty
que
stions discussed in this
document.
3. Wha
t kinds of phone
s ar
e
the subject of this upda
te
?
The t
erm “wir
ele
ss phone” r
efer
s
her
e t
o handheld wir
ele
ss phone
s
with built
-in ant
enna
s, oft
en
called “cell”
, “mobile”
, or “PCS”
phone
s. The
se t
ype
s of wir
ele
ss
phone
s can e
xpose the user t
o
mea
sur
able R
adio F
requency
(RF) ener
gy because of the shor
t
dist
ance be
tw
een the phone and
the user’
s head.
The
se RF e
xposur
es
ar
e limit
ed
by
FCC safe
ty
guideline
s tha
t
w
ere
de
veloped with the advice
of the FD
A and o
ther feder
al
health and safe
ty
agencie
s. When
the phone is loca
ted a
t gr
ea
te
r
dist
ance
s fr
om the user
, the
exposur
e t
o RF is dr
asticall
y
lo
w
er because a per
son's RF
exposur
e decr
ea
se
s r
apidl
y with
incr
ea
sing dist
ance fr
om the
sour
ce. The so-called “cor
dle
ss
phone
s,” which ha
ve
a ba
se unit
