Usage guidelines: All about performance and safety
115
FDA belongs to a 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
•
Federal Communications Committee
•
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
The National Institutes of Health participates in some
interagency working group activities, as well.
FDA shares regulatory responsibilities about 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
wireless exposures that people get from these base stations
are typically thousands of times lower than those they 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 phones” refers here to hand-held wireless
phones with built-in antennas, often called “cell,” “mobile,” or
“PCS”. These types of wireless phones can expose the user
to measurable radio frequency energy (RF) because of the
short distance between the phone and the user’s head.
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