After more than six years of review and public input, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appears poised to reaffirm its current limits for radiofrequency (RF) exposure generated by handheld devices.
According to an FCC press release issued earlier this month, FCC Chair Ajit Pai has proposed maintaining existing U.S. RF exposure limits, reportedly among the most stringent in the world. At the same time, Pai is also proposing taking a more uniform approach to determining compliance with RF exposure limits, replacing the Commission’s several, service-specific rules with a single set of science-based metrics to determine whether devices and entities are in compliance.
The FCC’s proposed action is based in part on an assessment by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the potential safety risks associated with exposure in accordance with the current limits. In that assessment, the FDA reported to the FCC that “the available scientific evidence to date does not support adverse health effects in humans due to exposure at or under the current limits,” and that “no changes to the current standards are warranted at this time.”
Read the FCC’s press release on its plans to reaffirm current RF exposure limits.
