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manufacturers to ensure that cardiac pacemakers
and defibrillators are safe from wireless phone EMI.
FDA has tested hearing aids for interference from
handheld wireless phones and helped develop a
voluntary standard sponsored by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). This
standard specifies test methods and performance
requirements for hearing aids and wireless phones so
that no interference occurs when a person uses a
compatible phone and a compatible hearing aid at
the same time. This standard was approved by the
IEEE in 2000.
FDA continues to monitor the use of wireless phones
for possible interactions with other medical devices.
Should harmful interference be found to occur, FDA
will conduct testing to assess the interference and
work to resolve the problem.
10.What are the results of the research done
already?
The research done thus far has produced conflicting
results, and many studies have suffered from flaws in
their research methods. Animal experiments
investigating the effects of radio frequency energy
(RF) exposures characteristic of wireless phones have
yielded conflicting results that often cannot be
repeated in other laboratories. A few animal studies,
however, have suggested that low levels of RF could
accelerate the development of cancer in laboratory
animals. However, many of the studies that showed
increased tumor development used animals that
had been genetically engineered or treated with
