WASHINGTON-Peter Angelos, the wealthy Baltimore lawyer and Democratic Party benefactor, said he will decide by early summer whether to file a class-action lawsuit against the wireless industry for alleged health-related injuries from mobile phones.
“We have compiled a multitude of information and probably the next 60 days will get us to the point where we can say we have a case or not,” said Angelos.
Since early this year, Angelos has reviewed scientific literature, talked to people who claim mobile phones caused their brain cancer and met with scientists about the state of science on health implications of mobile-phone radio-frequency radiation.
“I believe the evidence is mounting that there appears to be some connection” between mobile phones and health risks, Angelos stated. “We think there’s a lot there.”
For both Angelos and the mobile- phone industry, the potential stakes are huge.
Angelos, who has litigated successful personal-injury class-action lawsuits against the asbestos and tobacco industries, would be staking his legal reputation in an area of litigation ruled by the cellular industry.
To date, none of the handful of lawsuits alleging brain cancer and other illnesses from mobile phones have succeeded in the United States or overseas.
That industry has not lost a cell- phone health lawsuit and believes science is on its side does not phase Angelos.
“That was true in the tobacco litigation,” said Angelos.
“The fact no previous effort has succeeded [against the wireless industry] does not mean there won’t be or that there can’t be,” stated Angelos.
Angelos, a multimillionaire, brings to the table enormous financial and legal resources, seasoned courtroom expertise and political clout.
In addition to previous court victories against the asbestos and tobacco industries, Angelos is currently litigating against lead-paint manufacturers and the maker of an audio tape-erasing machine that produces strong electromagnetic fields. At least two men who operated machines at the National Security Agency claim the machines caused their brain tumors.
On the other hand, Angelos said filing a lawsuit is a serious matter. He said he will not go forward unless he feels he has strong case.
“We don’t file a case of this magnitude, with this gravity, frivolously,” said Angelos.
For the cellular industry, the stakes are even higher. With more than 90 million subscribers and new Internet applications waiting in the wings, the mobile-phone industry is the fastest-growing high-tech sector. Just how the mobile-phone industry would absorb the impact of a high-profile lawsuit is unclear.
“Government agencies in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain, as well as others, are unanimous in stating that the weight of scientific evidence shows there are no adverse health effects from the use of wireless phones,” said CTIA President Thomas Wheeler on the trade group’s Web site.
But the reality of mobile-phone health research is not as clear cut as Wheeler states. Researchers in the United States and overseas have found DNA breaks and genetic damage from mobile-phone radiation. The question is whether such laboratory findings can be extrapolated to discern a human risk. Many scientists insist the risk, if any, is infinitesimally small. Others disagree.
