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FDA Update on mobile phone safety
The U.S. Food and Drug
biological damage through heating
Administration's Center for
effects (this is how your microwave
Devices and Radiological Health
oven is able to cook food).
Consumer Update on Mobile
However, it is not known whether,
Phones
to what extent, or through what
mechanism, lower levels of RF
FDA has been receiving inquiries
might cause adverse health effects
about the safety of mobile phones,
as well.
including cellular phones and PCS
Although some research has
phones. The following summarizes
been done to address these ques-
what is known – and what remains
tions, no clear picture of the biolog-
unknown – about whether these
ical effects of this type of radiation
products can pose a hazard to
has emerged to date. Thus, the
health, and what can be done to
available science does not allow us
minimize any potential risk. This
to conclude that mobile phones are
information may be used to
absolutely safe, or that they are
respond to questions.
unsafe.
However, the available scientific
Why the concern?
evidence does not demonstrate
Mobile phones emit low levels of
adverse health effects associated
radiofrequency energy (i.e.,
with the use of mobile phones.
radiofrequency radiation) in the
microwave range while being used.
What kinds of phones are in
They also emit very low levels of
question?
radiofrequency energy (RF), consid-
Questions have been raised about
ered non-significant, when in the
hand-held mobile phones, the kind
stand-by mode. It is well known
that have a built-in antenna that is
that high levels of RF can produce
positioned close to the user's head
during normal telephone conversa-
How much evidence is there that
tion. These types of mobile phones
hand-held mobile phones might
are of concern because of the
be harmful?
short distance between the
Briefly, there is not enough evi-
phone's antenna – the primary
dence to know for sure, either way;
source of the RF – and the per-
however, research efforts are on-
son's head.
going. The existing scientific evi-
The exposure to RF from mobile
dence is conflicting and many of
phones in which the antenna is
the studies that have been done to
located at greater distances from
date have suffered from flaws in
the user (on the outside of a car,
their research methods.
for example) is drastically lower
than that from hand-held phones,
the effects of RF exposures charac-
because a person's RF exposure
teristic of mobile phones have
decreases rapaidly with distance
yielded conflicting results. A few
from the source.
animal studies, however, have sug-
The safety of so-called "cordless
gested that low levels of RF could
phones, " which have a base unit
accelerate the development of can-
connected to the telephone wiring
cer in laboratory animals.
in a house and which operate at far
lower power levels and frequen-
altered to be predisposed to devel-
cies, has not been questioned.
oping one type of cancer devel-
oped more than twice as many
such cancers when they were
exposed to RF energy compared to
controls. There is much uncertainty
among scientists about whether
results obtained from animal stud-
ies apply to the use of mobile
phones.
First, it is uncertain how to apply
the results obtained in rats and
mice to humans.
Second, many of the studies that
showed increased tumor develop-
ment used animals that had already
been treated with cancer-causing
chemicals, and other studies
exposed the animals to the RF vir-
Animal experiments investigating
tually continuously – up to 22 hours
per day.
For the past five years in the
United States, the mobile phone
industry has supported research
into the safety of mobile phones.
This research has resulted in two
In one study, mice genetically
findings in particular that merit
additional study:
• In a hospital-based, case-control
study, researchers looked for an
association between mobile phone
use and either glioma (a type of
brain cancer) or acoustic neuroma
(a benign tumor of the nerve
87
sheath). No statistically significant
association was found between
mobile phone use and acoustic
neuroma.
There was also no association
between mobile phone use and
gliomas when all types of gliomas
were considered together. It
should be noted that the average
length of mobile phone exposure in
this study was less than three
years.
When 20 types of glioma were
considered separately, however, an
association was found between
mobile phone use and one rare
type of glioma, neuroepithellioma-
tous tumors. It is possible with
multiple comparisons of the same
sample that this association
occurred by chance.
Moreover, the risk did not
increase with how often the mobile
phone was used, or the length of
the calls. In fact, the risk actually
decreased with cumulative hours
of mobile phone use.
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