San Francisco Has Cancer on the Brain
Filed under: Proposed Legislation, Public Health, Research
Photo by Esther Gibbons via Flickr
Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the city’s Board of Supervisors has thrown its hat into the ring of the great cell phone brain cancer debate. The Board voted 9-1 in favor of an ordinance requiring local retailers to display specific absorption rate (SAR) notices detailing radiation levels in cell phones. SAR measures the rate at which radiofrequency electromagnetic energy is absorbed in a body when using a cell phone. The FCC requires that cell phones sold in the U.S. not exceed a SAR level of 1.6 watts per kilogram. (If you’re curious about your own cell phone, check out CNET’s SAR level list for voice calls). Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign off on the ordinance and his spokesman says “this is a very reasonable and quite modest measure that will provide greater transparency and information to consumers for whom this is an area of interest or concern.” If this really does come through, it won’t affect retailers until 2011 or so.
Meanwhile, the industry trade group CTIA-The Wireless Association has issued a statement admonishing and punishing the Board for its vote:
“CTIA and the wireless industry are disappointed that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has approved the so-called ‘Cell Phone Right-to-Know’ ordinance. Rather than inform, the ordinance will potentially mislead consumers with point of sale requirements suggesting that some phones are ’safer’ than others…. [A]ll phones sold legally in the U.S. must comply with the Federal Communications Commission’s safety standards…. While we have enjoyed bringing our three day fall show to San Francisco five times in the last seven years, which has meant we’ve brought more than 68,000 exhibitors and attendees and had an economic impact of almost $80 million to the Bay Area economy, the Board of Supervisors’ action has led us to decide to relocate our show [starting in 2011].”
So is this just fear-mongering or does San Francisco’s Board know something that the rest of us don’t? According to the 10 year Interphone study conducted by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer and published online last month by the International Journal of Epidemiology, there is no conclusive evidence supporting or disaffirming any connection between cell phones and the risk of brain tumors. The study was not without controversy, though, even among the researchers themselves — and it had nothing to do with industry trade organizations– the Mobile Manufacturers’ Forum and the GSM Association– contributing funds for the study. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Interphone researchers were puzzled by their data because
[t]he result is a strange set of numbers. Many levels of cellphone use appeared to reduce the chance of developing a tumor. Only the people who talked on cellphones the most had a significantly greater chance of developing glioma [a type of tumor] - 40% greater - than those who didn’t use cellphones.
The use of cell phones might reduce the chance of developing a brain tumor? Go figure. For now, our very own FDA supports the Interphone study and refers to others which have shown no increased health risk.
Perhaps San Francisco politicians and consumers, like the rest of us, are really just facing a case of caveat emptor. However, until there is a study which can definitively support or disaffirm any connection between cell phones and the risk of brain tumors, I wouldn’t mind knowing whether one phone has a higher or lower SAR level than another. CTIA needn’t worry though. Having such information won’t make me break my contract with AT&T or stop me from eagerly awaiting the arrival of my iPhone 4 (whose SAR level, according to FCC documents, appears to be lower than my current iPhone 3G but higher than the iPhone 3GS). At least I’ve now given some thought about the risks to which I may be exposing myself. So too have the folks in San Francisco.
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