Newsweek has focused attention on the alleged dangers of cellphone radiation by reporting on the legal battle over the Berkeley, Calif., “Right to Know” warnings on phones.
CTIA, formerly the Cellular Telephone Industries Assn., is fighting in federal district court the Berkeley law, the only one of its kind in the nation, that requires the following warning to be posted in stores selling cellphones:
“If you carry or use your phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is ON and connected to a wireless network, you may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure to RF radiation.”
Customers are told to read the safety regulations in the cellphone manuals.
Newsweek reporter Ronnie Cohen has done an extensive article examining the legal arguments of both sides under the headline, “Berkeley, California has become ground zero over health debates on the safety of exposure to radio frequency in cellphones."
CTIA's slogan is "Everything Wireless." Its website notes the industry spent $166 billion on cell towers and networks from 2009-14. There are currently 594,304 cell towers in the U.S., many of them in residential districts, according to thekillzones.com, which says they are a major health hazard.
CTIA is represented by Theodore Olson, former solicitor general who argued the case that helped to put George W. Bush in the White House, says Cohen.
Berkeley is using Lawrence Lessig, Harvard law professor and “cyberlaw expert.” He is working pro bono. He says he is doing so because corporations discourage governments from imposing regulations by filing First Amendment lawsuits that are prohibitively expensive to defend. "I'm a Constitutional scholar and I am very concerned," he told Newsweek. He says that the warning notice in stores is "nothing but an arrow that points to the very manuals written by manufacturers."
Cellphone Warning Called Misleading
Olson says that “What the FCC says with respect to cellphones used in the U.S. is that they are safe. Berkeley’s message communicates: Watch out. If you don’t use them in a certain way, they won’t be safe.”
Lessig says the FCC never made a blanket statement that cellphones are safe in all circumstances, but only when used as tested. “We are relying on a regulation of the FCC. We don’t want to get into an argument about the science.”
Olson is arguing that the warning misleads consumers.
A telephone survey by Berkeley found that 70% of voters were not familiar with FCC-mandated safety tests. The safety tests assume that people would carry phones a short distance from their bodies. Following the survey, the Berkeley Council passed a law requiring warnings on cellphones. Berkeley is arguing that the warnings are “free speech.”
A written ruling is expected “in the next few months,” said the Newsweek article.
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