WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission said it will vigorously enforce wireless radiation safety rules that go into effect later this week.
“We are serious about this and will be checking,” said Robert Cleveland, the FCC’s expert on radio-frequency exposure rules. Cleveland said the FCC will conduct spot checks of transmitters operated by paging, mobile phone and specialized mobile radio licensees.
In addition to base stations, RF safety guidelines apply to mobile phones and other wireless devices. The agency has issued several notices in the past year and a half-the latest last Thursday-to remind wireless licensees of the Sept. 1 deadline.
Failure to comply with RF non-ionizing radiation exposure guidelines, which grew out of the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act, could result in fines and license forfeitures.
“The FCC is looking entirely to licensees for compliance,” said Ralph Haller, a former FCC wireless official who specializes in RF compliance as a consultant for Fox Ridge Communications Inc. in Gettysburg, Pa.
In contrast, tower owners and site managers have responsibility (and potentially liability) for federal regulations governing the marking and lighting of communications towers.
Haller conducts RF compliance computer analyses, which he says are cost effective and take into account worst-case scenarios. Other firms perform on-site measurements.
The FCC adopted stricter wireless RF radiation limits in August 1996. The rules were completed in 1997 and were upheld by a federal appeals court in New York earlier this year. The case is being appealed to the Supreme Court by citizens who believe the FCC RF radiation guidelines do not take account of alleged non-thermal health risks from mobile phones and base stations.
Wireless licensees have had three years to come into compliance with rules designed to protect the safety of workers and the general public. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration oversees businesses that provide RF services and products.
To prepare its members, the Personal Communications Industry Association published an RF compliance guide in October 1997. “It’s part of the ongoing educational process,” said Rob Hoggarth, senior vice president of government relations at PCIA.
“We don’t foresee any problems and haven’t heard of any,” said Travis Larson, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Lawsuit update
The RF compliance guidelines kick in at a time of unprecedented mobile-phone growth and renewed interest in whether mobile phones cause brain cancer as alleged recently in an $800 million lawsuit filed in Baltimore against Motorola Inc., Verizon Communications, SBC Communications Inc., CTIA and the Telecommunications Industry Association.
Joanne Suder, the lawyer handling the case, told RCR last week she has agreed to represent seven additional clients and will be filing mobile-phone injury suits on their behalf in coming weeks.
The mobile-phone industry has won the handful of health lawsuits that have been brought against it since 1990.
Many private wireless facilities are excluded from RF safety guidelines, but still may have some requirements as well as collective responsibility for compliance if they are collocated on a tower with license operators that are covered by federal RF regulations.
Whether budget restraints, current and prospective, will allow the FCC to enforce RF compliance as aggressively as it would like is unclear.
The FCC’s budget for fiscal 2001, which begins Oct. 1, is included in an appropriations bill that is presently the subject of debate between the GOP-controlled Congress and the Clinton administration.
As a separate matter, RF compliance guidelines have spawned a cottage industry of experts who advise wireless carriers.
Last week, SiteSafe L.L.C. said it will conduct RF emission evaluations for an additional 650 mobile-phone antenna sites for Triton PCS, an affiliate of AT&T Wireless Services Inc.
