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For Your Safety
3. What kinds of devices are the subject of this update?
The term “wireless device” refers here to handheld wireless devices with built-in antennas,
often called “cell”, “mobile”, or “PCS” devices. These types of wireless devices can expose
the user to measurable Radio Frequency (RF) energy because of the short distance between
the device 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 device 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.
4. 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 Radio
Frequency (RF) energy exposures characteristic of wireless devices have yielded conflicting
results that often cannot be repeated in other laboratories. A few animal studies, however,
have suggested that low levels of RF could accelerate the development of cancer in
laboratory animals. However, many of the studies that showed increased tumor development
used animals that had been genetically engineered or treated with cancer-causing chemicals
so as to be pre-disposed to develop cancer in the absence of RF exposure. Other studies
exposed the animals to RF for up to 22 hours per day. These conditions are not similar to
the conditions under which people use wireless devices, so we do not know with certainty
what the results of such studies mean for human health. Three large epidemiology studies
have been published since December 2000. Between them, the studies investigated any
possible association between the use of wireless devices and primary brain cancer, glioma,
meningioma, or acoustic neuroma, tumors of the brain or salivary gland, leukemia, or other
cancers. None of the studies demonstrated the existence of any harmful health effects from
wireless device RF exposures. However, none of the studies can answer questions about