U.S. Agency Changes Guidelines on Cellphone Safety

A U.S. agency has changed its guidance to cellphone users about radiation safety, siding with the cellphone industry by suggesting that data on a phone’s radiation emissions is not a useful gauge of potential health risks. On its website, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) removed a recommendation that consumers concerned about exposure use cellphones with lower specific absorption rates, the measure of the amount of radiofreqency energy a cell phone user absorbs. According to the new guidelines, the FCC says that any device approved by the agency has passed its absorption tests and is safe for use. The new language comes as experts debate the potential health effects of cellphones, and some municipalities, including San Francisco, push for stricter rules requiring wireless providers to disclose safety information. The new FCC guidelines are consistent with arguments by the cellphone industry that devices with a specific absorption rate of 1.0 are not necessarily safer than those with a rate of 1.6, the national safety standard. Consumer groups criticized the FCC for the “secretive” nature of the changes to safety guidelines, which were made last week without a formal announcement.