Environmental Health Trust Applauds Part of Judge Alsup’s Ruling

Group Offers new information on underlying issues

A federal judge has upheld parts of a San Francisco ordinance requiring retailers to provide customers with information about cell phone radiation,  and ordered that parts of the notification be revised.  U.S. District Judge William Alsup has directed city officials to reword the fact sheet that retailers are required to distribute to the consumer.

One group applauding Judge William Alsup’s partial support for San Francisco’s Right to Know safety information on cell phones.  As part of its mission to foster public understanding about cell phone science, EHT addresses a number of important questions raised by the court.

Question: Why worry about safety information, when cell phones are already 50 times lower in radiation intensity than they would need to be to provide biological impact?

EHT Response: Because they are not.  The so-called “50-fold safety factor” applies only to levels that are 50 times lower than they need to be to heat up the body.  However, radiation from today’s cell phones can—and do—have other biological impacts.  In fact, microwave radiation at the same or lower levels as that released by cell phones is now used to treat the liver and the brain, because it weakens the blood-brain barrier and allows for chemotherapy to penetrate into tumors.  Of course, this is great for cancer patients, but not so for the average person.  Throughout the body, membranes work to keep good things in and bad things out of our cells.  Whenever you weaken cells, this will let in chemotherapy—but it also lets in other impurities, which is bad news for the healthy brains of the average consumer.  (Learn more about the blood-brain barrier here.)

Question: Why worry about cancer risk when the World Health Organization also thinks coffee causes cancer?

EHT Response: The caffeine example is misleading.  Like a number of chemotherapy agents that have both positive and negative impacts, high doses of caffeine slightly raise the risk of bladder cancer, while reducing that of colon and other tumors.

Founded on an exhaustive analysis, the World Health Organization (WHO) expert opinion about cellphone radiation rests on a simple and well-accepted public-health premise:  Every compound known to cause cancer in humans also produces it in animals when adequately studied. The goal of such assessments is not to prove harm, but to provide the grounds for steps to prevent damage from unfolding.  How did preserved vegetables make the list?  In areas of rural China that lack refrigeration, extremely high levels of salts in preserved meats, fish and vegetables that form toxic compounds have created devastating rates of digestive system cancers. 

In fact, brain cancer is not the only health issue of concern linked to cell phone radiation, nor are cell phones the only source of radiofrequency and electromagnetic radiation.  Studies in rabbits and rats have shown that pulsed digital signals from today’s smartphones damage sperm, brain, liver, eyes and skin of exposed offspring, and impair their memory and behavior.  (Learn more about cancer and other health risks of cell phones here.

Question: Why worry when brain cancer rates are staying the same?

EHT Response: They are not.  In fact, there have been recent important increases in brain cancer in Finland and Norway—two Scandinavian countries whose citizens have been using cell phones the longest. (Learn more about increasing cancer here.)

Why worry when cell phone companies already tell consumers the proper way to use their cell phones in their manuals?

Consumers receive one message through industry advertisements featuring young children using cell phones as toys, and another in the cell phone manual itself, warning about keeping the phones a safe distance from the abdomen of teenagers and pregnant women.   Cell phone users only get to read about safer ways to use phones after purchasing the devices.  People have a right to know now what is in those fine-print warnings.  Cell phones kept in bras, pants or shirt pockets—as many people do today—can exceed current FCC exposure guidelines.

This essentially means that cell phone users may purchase a phone and upon reading the manual and the information regarding FCC exposure guidelines, be notified that the phone they have purchased cannot be optimally used in the ways most people use them today.  Had they known prior to purchase, they could have made better decisions.  Consumers should be empowered to make informed purchases that will ensure the longevity and versatility of the product they pay for.

How does this jibe with other nations’efforts?

San Francisco’s advice to consumers  is consistent with efforts already undertaken by the Israeli and French governments that promote safer use of cellphones and other wireless devices.  (For a worldwide directory of cell phone guidelines, please click here

About Environmental Health Trust

Environmental Health Trust (EHT) educates individuals, health professionals and communities about controllable environmental health risks and policy changes needed to reduce those risks. Current multi-media projects include: local and national campaigns to ban smoking and asbestos; working with international physician and worker safety groups to warn about the risks of inappropriate use of diagnostic radiation and cell phones, promoting research and awareness of environmental causes of breast cancer, and building environmental wellness programs in Wyoming and Pennsylvania to address the environmental impacts of energy development, the built environment and radon. EHT was created with the goal of promoting health and preventing disease one person, one community and one nation at a time. Capitalizing on growing public interest in Dr. Devra Lee Davis’s three popular books, When Smoke Ran Like Water, a National Book Award Finalist, The Secret History of the War on Cancer, and Disconnect--The Truth about Cell Phone Radiation, What Industry Has Done to Hide It and How to Protect Your Family, as well as recent documentary films, the foundation’s website offers clear, science-based information to prevent environmentally based disease and promote health, for the general public, children, and health professionals. For more information about getting involved in the numerous special projects spearheaded by the EHT, please log on to www.ehtrust.org.

Janet Vasquez, Director of Corporate Communications/The Investor Relations Group/212-825-3210/jvasquez@Investorrelationsgroup.com

Environmental Health Trust

www.saferphonezone.com