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LX5550
Safety
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
●
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 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.
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