Recently edited and updated, the FCC’s Consumer Facts webpage on Wireless Devices and Health Concerns now has a section titled Recent Developments.
The new section reports “some health and safety interest groups have suggested that wireless device use can be linked to cancer and other illnesses.” The FCC neither endorses or repudiates the suggested links, but goes on to list a number of precautions consumers can take, including keeping wireless devices away from your body, and using the speaker phone.
For comparison purposes, this cached copy is the same FCC Consumer Facts webpage as of January 2008.
Regarding this post, it looks to me as though, without admitting there is a health risk related to cellphone use, the FCC is inching towards giving more precautionary advice, along the lines of guidance given by other public agencies around the world and even some cell phone manufacturers. Note however there is no recognition given to any scientific evidence although some evidence does exist and is growing. Keep in mind that the FCC is not a health agency and is not authorized to formally evaluate the scientific evidence in the public interest. The FDA, whose job it is to review new consumer products and has a Bureau of Radiological Devices, approved cell phones in the early 1980s and to this day has not provided any assurances of cell phone safety or moved to determine whether cell phones are safe or not. Consumers should be aware of this. See http://www.environmentalhealthtrust,org and http://www.icems.eu for more information.
This is a good sign, indeed, but really nothing has changed. No federal agencies regulate cell phones and there is no sustained federal program in place to look at the health issues other than what the industry pays for. They still hold the power but even their recent advisories read like this so it is clear they are always trying to limit future liability.
Public policy proposals – especially the Leno bill in California– are what will turn the tide and government will follow. Consumer behavior change would speed this up. This is such a slow process.
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