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For Your Safety
Cooperate in providing users of wireless phones with the best possible information on
possible effects of wireless phone use on human health.
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 Radio Frequency (RF) energy 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