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Lawmakers
Push Bill To Fund Wireless Health Research
RCR Wireless News
Journalist: By Jeffrey Silva
July 16, 2001
House and Senate lawmakers plan to introduce legislation after the August recess
that would provide federal funding for mobile-phone health research and repeal a
1996 law prohibiting local officials from considering health as a factor in
reviewing tower-siting applications, a top Senate staffer said last week.
The legislation comes as the mobile-phone industry faces increased
health-related litigation in courts across the country. Some lawsuits, such as
those in Maryland, Georgia, Nevada and California, claim cell phones caused
brain tumors. Class-action suits in various states allege industry knew from the
start of possible health risks from mobile phones and should now supply
consumers with hands-6.00 headsets to reduce injury or compensate those who have
already paid for the radiation-protection accessory.
An Illinois state court last week rejected industry’s attempt to block a
partial settlement in a health-related privacy case, paving the way to create a
first-ever registry of subscribers who believe they’ve been injured by
mobile-phone radiation. The database will be managed by Dr. George Carlo, the
epidemiologist who headed a $28 million industry-funded research program that
found genetic damage from cell-phone radiation. Edward Barron, deputy chief
counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, said another bill will be offered to
return full jurisdiction of broadcast antenna siting to state and local
authorities. Mobile-phone antennas are sometimes placed on broadcast towers.
The three bills will be sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and James
Jeffords (I-Vt.) and Reps. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) and Thomas Tancredo (R-Colo.).
The lawmakers hosted a congressional briefing last Thursday, hoping to drum up
additional support from colleagues.
Presentations were made by Barron, the EMR Network and individual activists who
want local control of antenna siting and stronger federal oversight of health
issues associated with mobile-phone and base-station radiation exposure, Dr.
Theodore Litovitz, director of bioelectromagnetics research at Catholic
University of America and attorney Gerry Lederer. “This [excessive
mobile-phone-radiation exposure] enhances the probability of cancer,” said
Litovitz.
Litovitz said recent research, some replicated, has documented non-heating,
adverse bioeffects from mobile-phone radiation and from electromagnetic fields
produced by power lines. Litovitz acknowledged some researchers do not believe
mobile phones or power lines cause non-thermal bioeffects. But he said science
is gravitating toward the non-thermal view. Federal Communications Commission
radiation guidelines for mobile phones and towers do not take non-thermal
radiation consequences into effect.“The standards that protect you are based
on the heating of tissue. … It’s an enormously important issue,” said
Litovitz. Litovitz has funding from millionaire Baltimore lawyer Peter Angelos
to study therapeutic applications of radiofrequency radiation. Angelos is
involved in brain cancer and headset lawsuits against the mobile-phone industry.
The mobile-phone industry claims the preponderance of scientific studies say
cell phones are safe. The U.S. government is doing very little research, though
the National Toxicology Program recently announced it plans to spend $10 million
over the next five years on experiments that expose rodents to mobile- phone
radiation. FDA is working with the cellular industry on limited studies, but
that research has been criticized for possible conflict of interest.
In the past, similar bills championed by the Vermont congressional delegation
have not gone far. The bills likely will be referred to the House and Senate
commerce committees. Barron said the bills’ sponsors plan to work with Senate
Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.). Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
refused to consider previous health-antenna siting bills when he headed the
panel.
In the House, the Vermont bills will face an uphill battle in getting a
hearing from Commerce Committee Billy Tauzin (R-La.), who has championed various
pieces of mobile-phone industry legislation.
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