San Francisco Sued By the CTIA over Cell Phone Radiation Law
The lobbying arm of the wireless industry is stepping up the attacks on the recent ordinance out of San Francisco. The ordinance will require that cell phone retailers in the city display the SAR of every handset being sold in their store. The SAR is the specific absorption radiation rate of the handset.
Less than a month after the CTIA has stated that they’re no longer going to hold their trade show in the city now, the CTIA has now filed suit in order to block the enforcement of the cities legislation.
The suit was filed in the San Francisco United States District Court and accuses the city of unlawful interference in the FCCs exclusive authority, derived from Congress, over the cell phones emissions of radio frequencies as well as other wireless devices. You can find a copy of the suit here. The lawsuit states that if not enjoined the ordinance is something that will cause irreparable harm to not only the plaintiff and its members but also the public.
The press secretary for the DA stated that at the time of this writing his office hadn’t had the opportunity to completely read the suit yet but the ordinance is something that gives the consumer an easier access to the information that’s already available to them on carrier and manufacturer websites and in the phone’s user manuals, nothing more, nothing less. He talks about how the cell phone lobby, the CTIA, is arguing that the improved information access is somehow illegal. He states that they think it’s a rather “novel” legal concept.
The CTIA issued a statement through their public affairs VP which states that the law actually misleads consumers through the creation of false impressions that the FCCs current standards are somehow insufficient. The standard is currently 1.6 watts per kilogram and the FCC has stated that any cell phone that’s within that standard is compliable. He went on to state that through the display of the phone’s SAR and the pos actually leads the consumer to believe that there’s some sort of consequential distinction in safety between that of FCC amenable devices that have the different levels of SAR.
The CTIA has argued for a long time that using a cell phone doesn’t hold any danger to the user. Although, the years of research don’t suggest any sort of a consensus any way harmful or not in regards to cell phone radio frequency. Even the largely funded studies have still come in inconclusive. One of these studies, the Interphone study, came out in May.
The legislation was enacted back on June 15th by the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. This was done over the concerns over the potential long-term radiation exposure from cell 14 phones. The enacted law is twofold:
• First it mandates that all cell phone retailers have a list posted of both the actual and the maximum SAR for every cell phone that they cell
• Second it mandates that customers have access to educational materials about radiation from cell phones when they make their purchasing decisions
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- What Is The CTIA?
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- Apple Rejects Application That Would Gauge iPhone Radiation Levels
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- Link between Brain Cancer and Cell Phone Use Inconclusive
- The First Long-Term Cell Phone Health Study Launched By Europeans, Where Is The USA Study?
Tags: cell phone safety