Finally the FCC in the USA are to Review Cell Phone Radiation Safety Standards

At long last, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided to review the health effects of radiation from cell phones and other wireless devices to see if it needs to modify its standards for safety.  On March 27, 2013, it opened an inquiry into this issue.

For the first time since 1996 when the agency first adopted its RF standards, the FCC will be consulting with relevant agencies and health experts about this issue. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated a notice of inquiry last June that posed a series of questions as to whether the current standards need to be updated or whether the agency’s testing practices should be altered. It took nine months for the notice of inquiry to become an official part of the FCC docket.

Current FCC Standards

Many experts believe that the current standards have needed to be updated for a long time. Indeed, the FCC standards for cell phone radiation are more than out-dated; they were never really adequate to begin with, for the following reasons:

1. The kind of radiation they tested was the thermal radiation of cell phones. The researchers who are concerned today about health effects of radiation are those who have been testing the effects of non-thermal radiation of cell phones.

2. The FCC based its standards on studies that utilized a simulated model of a healthy man who was 6’2” and weighed 220 lbs. This certainly is not the average person today using a cell phone, when we consider all the women, children and men who have smaller heads—and those who may have a weakened immune system.

3. The exposure time tested was extremely short. This too is not representative of what is happening today, when people stay on the phone sometimes for hours at a time.

4. Cell phones in 1996 were not the digital models that are used today.

5. The tests done back in 1996 did not take into account the presence of any other microwave radiation in the environment. Today, aside from the radiation coming from a person’s cell phone, there is also radiation from all the other wireless technology in the environment, along with that from the hundreds of cell towers and WiFi that now completely surrounds us.  The effect of all this radiation on a body is cumulative and continues to stress the body in an ongoing way.

Environmental Activists Pleased but Worried

Certain groups of environmental activists, scientists and health professionals have called on the FCC for years to update its RF emission standards, saying they don’t adequately protect users of wireless devices, especially children and pregnant women.

Many of these critics also contend that plenty of research has shown a connection between mobile phone use and brain tumors and other ill health effects. See review of studies on cell phones and cancer and the 2012 Bioinitiative Report.

Although pleased that the FCC is finally taking some action on the issue, some critics question whether the Commission is even qualified to undertake the task of deciding whether its standards need to be revised, given its lack of knowledge in public health matters. We can only hope.