Will San Francisco Cave to Telecom Industry and Abandon Cell Phone Right to Know law?

Will San Francisco Cave to Telecom Industry and Abandon Cell Phone Right to Know law?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) - Apr. 30, 2013 - CALIFORNIA BRAIN TUMOR ASSOCIATION

Will San Francisco Abandon its Unanimously Approved Cell Phone Right to Know Law Due to Pressure from the Telecom Industry?

San Francisco – April 30, 2013  The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on Tuesday, May 7 whether to approve a proposed settlement of a cell phone industry lawsuit that would kill San Francisco’s pioneering ordinance requiring cell phone retailers to provide information about how customers may reduce their exposure to the radiofrequency radiation (RF) emitted by cell phones.  

The Supervisors’ vote comes just as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has formally opened an assessment of their 1996 RF exposure safety standards and testing procedures in the face of the unprecedented use of wireless devices by children.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, in a July 2012 letter to the FCC, declares “children….are disproportionately impacted by all environmental exposures, including cell phone radiation. In fact, according to the International Agency for Research on  Cancer, when used by children, the average RF energy deposition is two times higher in the brain and 10 times higher in the bone marrow of the skull, compared with mobile phone use by adults.” 

In May 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the microwave radiation of cell phones and wireless devices as a possible human carcinogen based upon an increased risk of brain cancer associated with cell phone use. 

A new study, “Incidence Trends in the Anatomic Location of Primary Malignant Brain Tumors in the United States: 1992–2006” (Zada et al, 2012) references 3 U.S. cancer registries (including cancer rates from the National Cancer Institute) that reveal an increase in brain tumor rates in the State of California in those areas of the brain closest to where cell phones are held.  

“The City Attorney has informed the Supervisors’ Rules Committee that the savings to the City by settling the lawsuit amounts to ‘the upper six figures,’” said Ellie Marks of the California Brain Tumor Association (CABTA), a non-profit she and her son Zachary founded in 2009 after her husband developed a brain tumor on the same side of the head he held his cell phone for many years.

“The hypothetical legal costs to the city of defending the law are a drop in the bucket compared to the probable public health care costs involved in the City & County of San Francisco failing to inform consumers about easy ways to reduce their exposures to cell phone radiation,” Marks pointed out.  In 2010, Stanford University reported the average cost of initial treatment of a brain cancer is approximately $600,000.  

“The Supervisors should base their decisions upon the values expressed in the Precautionary Principle ordinance the City adopted in 2003,” added Cynthia Franklin of Consumers for Safe Cell Phones, a non-profit wireless consumer advocacy group.  “However, it looks like telecom industry influence from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the newly-established ‘Tech Chamber of Commerce’ (SF CITI) is pressuring Mayor Lee and the Supervisors to repeal the law by accepting the proposed settlement.”  

“It’s vitally important for the supervisors to uphold their responsibility to inform the public about critical health issues and to refuse to be intimidated by the telecom industry’s wealth and political influence,” Franklin said.  

Contact:  (925) 285-5437  cabtasf@hotmail.com  or  (360) 201-3959

Other resources: 

FCC Begins Review of its Cell Phone Radiation Safety Rules:

http://microwavenews.com/short-takes-archive/fcc-updating...

IARC Publishes Rationale for Cell Phone Radiation as Possible Human Carcinogen:  

http://microwavenews.com/short-takes-archive/iarc-publish...

SF Chronicle article on SF Chamber of Commerce initiative:  

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Chamber-proposes-new-rules-for-City-Hall-4325232.php#page-1

San Francisco Invents the Tech Chamber of Commerce:  

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680974/san-francisco-invents-the-tech-chamber-of-commerce

San Francisco Citizens Initiative for Technology and Innovation: 

http://www.sfciti.com/

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