Personal Communicator User's Guide

FDA Update for Mobile Phones
107
In one study, mice genetically altered to be predisposed to developing one type of
cancer developed 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 studies 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 development used animals that had
already been treated with cancer-causing chemicals, and other studies exposed the
animals to the RF virtually 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 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 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 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.