WASHINGTON-An Illinois state court this week is poised to rule on a proposed $1.4 million health-related privacy suit against the cellular industry, which faces increased litigation as science raises more questions about whether mobile phones can cause brain cancer and other neurological disorders.
The proposed settlement would provide $250,000 in seed money for a database of mobile phone subscribers who believe they’ve been injured by radiation exposure. Dr. George Carlo, the epidemiologist who headed a six-year, $28 million research project funded by industry, would manage the registry. Carlo sparked national controversy after going public in 1999 with results of genetic damage from cell phone radiation. Carlo, under the settlement, would have $150,000 set aside for future legal expenses.
Industry claims research has yet to find a link between mobile phones and cancer. Others point to research-including a recent Swedish epidemiology study that found such a correlation-that has discovered DNA breaks, genetic damage, eye cancer, and increased cancer in lab rodents from mobile phone radiation.
The proposed settlement would discount by half the $25 book-Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age-authored by Carlo and nationally syndicated columnist Martin Schram.
The cell phone industry and Epidemiology Resources Inc., the Boston-based research group implicated in alleged privacy allegations, oppose the proposed settlement.
The case before Judge Stephen A. Schiller, of the Circuit Court of Cook County, alleges privacy rights of cellular subscribers were violated when their billing records were used without consent for a cell phone-cancer study conducted by ERI.
The lawsuit, certified as a class action and comprised of approximately 40 million cell phone users, initially claimed the cellular industry conspired to cover up mobile phone health risks. The court dismissed the allegation, but it could be reintroduced later in the case.
On Tuesday, Schiller will hold a hearing on the proposed settlement.
Defendants in the lawsuit include ERI, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, Ameritech Mobile Communications Inc. and Wireless Technology Research L.L.C.
WTR contracted with ERI in the mid-1990s to undertake the epidemiology study at issue in Busse et al. vs. Motorola Inc.
Last week, WTR and the plaintiffs criticized objections raised by industry to the proposed settlement.
“The non-settling parties defendants do not, and cannot, argue that anything in the proposed settlement adversely affects their ability to defend themselves in the remainder of the litigation,” stated WTR in a court filing. “To the contrary, the proposed settlement agreement and its accompanying documents all make clear that WTR does not believe that it has done anything wrong or that there is any merit to plaintiffs allegations, including their allegations concerning the propriety or scope of the class action aspects of the case.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs took aim at industry. “The non-settling defendants who … decided to turn over consumers’ personal information without prior consent or knowledge for commercial gain and advantage, now denigrate and attempt to stop a hard-fought settlement that provides for an historic result and great benefit to the class.”
The Illinois case, which could impact wireless industry insurance coverage if the settlement is approved, is unraveling as phone-brain cancer lawsuits, class-action headset-protection litigation and workers’ compensation claims of wireless radiation injury play out in Maryland, New York, California, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Nevada.
Consumer advocates, who unsuccessfully challenged government phone and tower radiation guidelines in court, will brief lawmakers and congressional staff on July 12 in hopes of drumming up support for upcoming legislation. Bills expected to be introduced later this summer will seek federal funding for wireless health research and a repeal of a 1996 telecom act provision that forbids communities from blocking the construction of mobile phone base stations if carriers comply with Federal Communications Commission radiation exposure guidelines.
