WASHINGTON-RCR Wireless News has learned that a General Accounting Office report scheduled for release next month will sharply criticize the Federal Communications Commission and the Food and Drug Administration for not educating consumers sufficiently on mobile-phone health issues, but the government study will stop short of calling for federally funded research that some lawmakers in Congress say is needed to determine whether the nation’s 112 million wireless users are at risk.
The GAO report, requested by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), is not expected to end the debate over whether mobile phones can lead to brain cancer and other diseases. In that respect, like a 1994 GAO report on cell phones, the new government study leaves the health question in limbo and likely will disappoint Lieberman.
“I am asking GAO to clarify what risks may or may not exist,” stated Lieberman when he requested the report in October 1999, “in order to provide the most accurate information to an understandably concerned public.”
In fact, the upcoming GAO report is likely to fuel the controversy at a time when the cellular industry increasingly finds itself the target of health-related lawsuits around the country.
Last week, the firm of Baltimore power lawyer Peter Angelos filed class-action lawsuits against the mobile-phone industry in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
The Angelos firm said the lawsuits “seek to compel the wireless handheld telephone industry to furnish a headset free of charge to each purchaser or lessee of a wireless handheld telephone or to reimburse any consumer who has purchased such a headset to address the failure of the wireless telephone industry to provide purchasers of handheld wireless phones a headset which would protect the users. The goal of the litigation is to address the serious health issues that arise from the use of wireless handheld telephones by compelling the industry to take this long overdue action.”
Asked whether additional lawsuits will be filed, Angelos told RCR Wireless News: “Those four are all we’ve filed for now.” But he added, “It could be expanded. It’s very possible.”
A similar class-action case is being litigated in New Orleans by the law firm of Lowe, Stein, Hoffman, Allweiss & Hauver. Several lawyers at the Angelos law firm also are working on the New Orleans lawsuit against the wireless industry.
“There is absolutely no credible scientific basis for any health risk associated with the use of wireless phones,” said Norman Sandler, director of global strategic issues for Motorola Inc., a defendant in several lawsuits.
Angelos also represents Christopher Newman in an $800 million lawsuit that claims the 41-year-old neurologist from Baltimore got brain cancer from heavy cell-phone use.
Other brain cancer and health-related wireless lawsuits are pending in Georgia, Illinois, Nevada and California. Workers’ compensation claims that allege occupational injuries from mobile-phone radiation are pending in Illinois and California.
“The scientific data do not support that wireless phones are harmful. But if people are concerned, headsets are one way to reduce radiation exposure,” said Sharon Snider, an FDA spokeswoman. At the same time, FDA’s official position is that more research is needed before it can be determined if mobile phones are safe.
French and British government reports on mobile-phone health issues are far more forceful than GAO’s report in urging mobile-phone radiation precautions, especially regarding children.
The wireless industry insists scientific studies demonstrate that mobile phones are safe, but others point to research showing DNA breaks, genetic damage, memory impairment, increased tumors in lab rodents and other bioeffects from mobile-phone radiation.
“Given the long-term nature of much of the research being conducted-particularly the epidemiological and animal studies-it will likely be many more years before a definitive conclusion can be researched on whether mobile-phone emissions pose any risk to human health,” stated the GAO draft report.
GAO investigators say they plan to submit the report to Lieberman and Markey in the next week or so. Staff of the two lawmakers said no decision has been made whether they will seek congressional hearings or legislation.
Markey, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and other Vermont lawmakers last year sponsored House and Senate bills that would earmark millions of dollars for independent research. Most mobile-phone-cancer research conducted in the United States to date has been funded by the cellular industry. The Vermont congressional delegation is expected to reintroduce funding legislation later this year.
It is unclear why the GAO report, which takes note of research overseas and acknowledges the controversy is far from being settled, did not see fit to recommend federally funded research in the United States.
The FDA is working with the cellular industry on narrow research to replicate experiments-conducted by Wireless Technology Research L.L.C. researchers in North Carolina-that found genetic damage in human blood from mobile radiation. Cellular carriers and manufacturers spent $28 million during the past six years on the WTR research program, headed by Dr. George Carlo. The government-industry research initiative is also studying the possibility of sponsoring epidemiology studies.
The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between FDA and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association has been criticized by Carlo for not being aggressive enough. GAO agreed, calling the project “limited in scope.” In addition, GAO is expected to require the FDA to issue a report on the extent to which the cellular industry has followed health-research recommendations of government scientists.
In addition, the GAO report is expected to take exception with claims that two widely publicized epidemiology studies offer consumers reassurance that mobile phones are safe. The GAO report agrees with critics that say the two epidemiology studies-conducted by the National Cancer Institute and the American Health Foundation- do not measure potential health dangers from long-term cell-phone use.
In addition to criticizing lackluster consumer outreach on mobile-phone health issues by the federal government, the GAO report is expected to hammer the FCC for confusion surrounding the absence of standards for measuring mobile-phone radiation. Government officials and industry engineers are hoping to complete work on a radiation measurement standard in the next year or so.
As for the Angelos lawsuit, WTR’s Carlo stated: “It is the absolute right thing to be doing because this is a rare instance where the legal remedy is also a public-health remedy,” said Carlo. “I see this as a very constructive step.”
Carlo added: “Because the legislative and regulatory systems have not been able to come up with a solution that protects consumers, the type of litigation that Angelos is now bringing represents constructive public health intervention.”
