NYT: S.F. May Require Warnings About Cellphone Radiation

[Barry]

December 23, 2009, 5:40 pm — Updated: 5:40 pm S.F. May Require Warnings About Cellphone Radiation

By MICHELLE QUINN Can the radiation from your cellphone give you cancer? So far, there’s no hard evidence that it can. But the city of San Francisco may require retailers to warn you about it anyway.

In January, San Francisco’s environment commission will discuss eight recommendations related to radiation emitted by cellphones and local, state and federal policies regarding it. Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to propose an ordinance next month requiring retailers to post information about cellphone radiation on store shelves.

Maine may join San Francisco in the effort. A state legislator there introduced a bill requiring that phones come with a warning label advising people that the device could cause cancer from electromagnetic radiation it emits.

Health concerns about cellphone radiation have been around for decades with little scientific consensus that cellphone use creates health problems. The Federal Communications Commission regulates the cellphone industry and says that devices sold in the United States are safe. That hasn’t quieted some people’s concerns. Many policy makers and consumers are awaiting the results of the multinational Interphone study, which is taking an in-depth look at cellphone radiation emissions and cancer. The Environmental Working Group, an environmental advocacy organization, recently issued a list of each cellphone’s radiation emissions.

San Francisco picked up the issue after the past director of city’s department of the environment, Jared Blumenfeld, spoke to British journalists who were writing on the issue of cellphone safety, said Debbie Raphael, toxics reduction program manager for the department.

Ms. Raphael, whose office deals with regulation of everything from pesticides to fluorescent light bulbs, began to research cellphone radiation and discovered that it is hard for consumers to find much information about it. She seized on a white paper by the Environmental Working Group that raised questions about cellphone safety and policy.

Ms. Raphael says local municipalities like San Francisco can play a role in opening up a discussion on cellphone safety standards at the federal and state levels. “We’re not convinced there isn’t evidence of harm,” she said. “Do you wait until you have proof of cause and effect, or do you look for indications from reputable scientific sources?”

On a personal basis, she has decided to keep using her cellphone, but from a distance.

“I am wearing a headset,” she said. “I make sure the cellphone, when it’s on, is not close to my body. I would never carry it in my coat pocket.”

She even lectures her children — a 20-year-old daughter (”who will sleep with it”) and an 18-year-old son — about the potential hazards.

“They don’t want to hear it,” she said.

Do you?