FCC Launches Inquiry, Makes Changes to RF Rules

The FCC released revised radiofrequency rules intended to resolve a number of issues regarding compliance with agency regulations for conducting environmental reviews of wireless devices under the National Environmental Policy Act. The FCC also put out a further notice Friday asking questions about other changes whether there is a need for reassessment of the Commission RF exposure limits and policies. Also released was an NOI asking “whether there is a need for reassessment of the Commission radiofrequency (RF) exposure limits and policies."

The FCC said it hopes to determine “whether the present limits are insufficiently protective, appropriately protective, or overly restrictive.” The NOI notes, however, that experts at the Food and Drug Administration and elsewhere “have not suggested that there is a basis for changing our standards or similar standards applied in other parts of the world.” The entire document is at http://fcc.us/YOXHNh.

The order makes mostly technical changes. “Currently, categorical exclusion from Environmental Assessment with respect to RF exposure can be achieved by either: (1) demonstrating compliance with our RF exposure limits or (2) falling into a category based on proximity and power level,” it said. “Our rule revisions are intended to provide applicants with alternative methods of showing that they comply with the RF exposure limits, which could reduce the costs of applying for licenses and grants without relaxing the current protections against excessive RF exposure.” Under the new rules, companies can show they meet the guidelines based on “specific absorption rate” (SAR) instead of “maximum permissible exposure” (MPE) for fixed and mobile transmitters.

Industry commenters told the FCC “SAR is the basic quantity used to derive the Commission’s exposure guidelines and, therefore, should be allowed as a compliance metric,” the order said. Commenters agreed “that simple compliance based on MPE values may overstate the actual RF energy absorption of persons near transmitters and that SAR is a more accurate indicator of human exposure.” More work remains, the FCC said. “We note that accepted, generic procedures for determining SAR throughout the range of varied circumstances have not been developed. Accordingly, the acceptability of the procedures that a proponent of an RF source uses to calculate the relevant SAR values must, at this point, be assessed on an ad hoc basis.”

The order reclassifies the outer ear, or “pinna,” as an extremity, subject to less stringent exposure protections than other parts of the ear and head. “We conclude that classification of the pinna as an extremity is supported by the expert determinations of the FDA and of the IEEE, will have no practical impact on the amount of human exposure to RF radiation, and is therefore appropriate,” the order said.

"CTIA welcomes the FCC’s focus on cellphones and health effects,” said spokesman John Walls. “In establishing RF emission requirements for wireless devices, the FCC has always been guided by science and the evidence produced by impartial health organizations and the scientific community. As the GAO stated in its July 2012 report, ‘Scientific research to date has not demonstrated adverse human health effects of exposure to radio-frequency energy from mobile phone use, but research is ongoing that may increase understanding of any possible effects.’ The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health have reached similar conclusions about the state of the science.”