Bay Area Cities Gang Up to Warn About Cell Phone Radiation
San Francisco Mayor Signs Nation’s First Cell Safety Ordinance
08/30/2011 | By James R. Hood
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ConsumerAffairs.com
| Cell Phones & Smart Phones
Northern California is home not only to Google, Apple and other big players in the cell phone business but also to lots of consumer activists who fret about the possible health effects of radio-frequency emissions.
Lobbying by the citizen groups is starting to get results.
In Burlingame, just across the bridge from San Francisco, the city council has passed a motion to post guidelines on the city’s website to advise consumers how they can minimize their exposure to cell phone radiation. (Not talk so much, maybe?)
Admittedly, posting information on a website is not exactly taking it to the streets but in today's increasingly odd world, it's a victory of sorts.
Burlingame is not only a leader in the fight against inadequate safety warnings on websites. It has also been blazing new trails in the struggle against noisy lawn implements. The council has been considering banning or limiting the use of leaf blowers. A public hearing on that proposal is set for Sept. 6.
California already leads the world in warning consumers about dangerous chemicals. Nearly every public place imaginable displays one of the "Proposition 65" warnings, made mandatory by the initiative of the same name. If nothing else, it has been beneficial for the sign business.
SF wants posters
Burlingame’s action, if it can be called that, comes days after San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee signed an ordinance aimed at protecting the consumer’s right to know about the potential risks of cell phone radiation.
The San Francisco ordinance, the first of its kind nationwide, requires retail shops to display posters and distribute fact sheets to inform cell phone buyers about cell phone radiation and how to reduce their exposure to those emissions.
“San Francisco and Burlingame are true leaders in consumers’ rights,” said Renée Sharp, director of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) California office. “We hope this movement will spread throughout the state and nation. Cell phone users everywhere have, at the very least, a right to be informed about their potential exposure to radiation and how they can minimize it.”
Last May, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, classified cell phone radiation as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” Scientists convened by the agency cited evidence that long-term cell phone use might be associated with an increased risk for glioma, a type of malignant brain tumor.
Two months later, a study on cell phones' impacts on children’s health led by Swiss scientists found that children who used a cell phone for more than 2.8 years had an increased risk of brain tumors.
An article published July 28 in the Journal of Andrology linked cell phone radiation exposure to decreased sperm concentration, motility and quality in humans.
EWG has investigated the potential health effects of cell phone radiation for years. EWG’s free tip sheet lays out simple ways cell phone users can reduce their exposure to this radiation.
Nancy Weytkow Giuriati (Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:51:40 +0000): Included: some tips to reduce exposure.
Eleanore Gigandet (Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:39:23 +0000): I knew there was a reason that I didn't need a cell phone... Take note - all you youngsters with cell phones and minimise your use of them!
Patricia Lockyer (Tue, 06 Sep 2011 03:02:39 +0000): James R. Hood. Where do you live, anyway? There is NO BRIDGE between San Francisco and Burlingame. Google it. Maybe you should have before writing this article!