beautypg.com

U.s. fda – Siemens A65 User Manual

Page 34

background image

©

Siem

ens AG

2003, L

:\Mobi

l\R65

\A65

_Puma_v

2\a

m

\FD

A.fm

33

U.S. FDA

VAR Langua

ge: a

m

; VAR issue

date: 041104

left page (33)

of A65_PUMA am, A31008-H5810-A40-1-4A19 (11.11.2004, 16:23)

U.S. FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug

Administration's (FDA) Center

for Devices and Radiological

Health Consumer Update on

Mobile Phones

FDA has been receiving inquiries

about the safety of mobile phones,

including cellular phones and PCS

phones. The following summarizes

what is know – and what remains

unknown – about whether these

products can pose a hazard to

health, and what can be done to

minimize any potential risk. This in-

formation may be used to respond

to questions.
Why the concern?
Mobile phones emit low levels of ra-

dio frequency energy (i.e., radio fre-

quency radiation) in the microwave

range while being used. They also

emit very low levels of radio frequen-

cy energy (RF), considered non-sig-

nificant, when in the stand-by mode.

It is well known that high levels of RF

can produce biological damage

through heating effects (this is how

your microwave oven is able to cook

food). However, it is not known

whether, to what extent, or through

what mechanism, lower levels of RF

might cause adverse health effects

as well. Although some research has

been done to address these ques-

tions, no clear picture of the biologi-

cal effects of this type of radiation

has emerged to date. Thus, the avail-

able science does not allow us to

conclude that mobile phones are ab-

solutely safe, or that they are unsafe.

However, the available scientific evi-

dence does not demonstrate ad-

verse health effects associated with

the use of mobile phones.
What kinds of phones are in question?
Questions have been raised about

hand-held mobile phones, the kind

that have a built-in antenna that is

positioned close to the user's head

during normal telephone conversa-

tion. These types of mobile phones

are of concern because of the short

distance between the phone's an-

tenna – the primary source of the

RF – and the person's head. The ex-

posure to RF from mobile phones in

which the antenna is located at

greater distances from the user (on

the outside of a car, for example) is

drastically lower than that from

hand-held phones, because a per-

son's RF exposure decreases rapidly

with distance from the source. The

safety of so-called "cordless phones",

which have a base unit connected to

the telephone wiring in a house and

which operate at far lower power

levels and frequencies, has not been

questioned.