Draft for Sony Ericsson -- Preliminary Copy
US Safety Guidelines
87
• National Telecommunications and Information
Administration
The National Institutes of Health participates in some
interagency working group activities, as well.
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.
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.
T606UG-R1.book Page 87 Monday, December 30, 2002 11:57 AM