Health and safety information
48
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
•
“Federal Communications Commission
•
“Occupational Safety and Health
Administration
•
“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 primary subject
of the safety questions discussed in this
document.
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
