WASHINGTON-The Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration signed off on hybrid radio frequency radiation exposure guidelines being unveiled by the Federal Communications Commission this week.
However, there was speculation late last week that a lawsuit might be filed to block the new RF standard, which combines guidelines crafted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and adopted in 1992 by the American National Standards Institute and those developed by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement a decade ago.
The FCC in 1993 proposed to adopt the ’92 IEEE/ANSI standard outright, but pressure from the EPA and other safety and health agencies forced the FCC to change course. The wireless telecommunications industry abandoned its opposition to a hybrid RF standard, yet secured language aimed at bolstering public confidence in new guidelines.
“This new approach is consistent with our comments made in 1993 and addresses our concerns about adequate protection of public health,” said EPA chief Carol Browner in a letter to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt last Wednesday.
According to the Browner letter, the FCC will adopt limits for field strength and power density limits based on NCRP recommendations; adopt IEEE/ANSI limits for localized specific absorption rate; defer adopting IEEE/ANSI radiated power exclusion pending possible future consideration of a modified version; adopt a categorical exclusion policy for certain transmitters; and endorse measurement procedures described in IEEE/ANSI C95.3 and NCRP Report No. 119.
