A new paper published in Pittsburgh Law Review by Hala Mouzaffar finds the FCC and FDA have failed to ensure people are protected from cell phone radiation.
Mouzaffar, Hala. 2021. The FCC Keeps Letting Me Be: Why Radiofrequency Radiation Standards Have Failed to Keep Up With Technology. University of Pittsburgh Law Review 83 (1). doi:10.5195/lawreview.2021.826
Excerpts
“With wireless devices being so commonplace, it is surprising to know that the FCC has been adamant since the beginning that they do not have the expertise to set standards; instead, they insist on referring to their stance as simply guidelines.”
“With cellphones physically in the hands of nearly 97% of Americans, if guidelines remain at their current levels, and long-term usage of such devices proves to be as detrimental as current research suggests, wireless devices have the potential to cause one of the largest national public health threats the United States has ever seen.”
“All manufacturers should be required to attach a label to RFR-utilizing devices informing consumers that currently there is some credible evidence to indicate that prolonged exposure to low levels of RFR can be dangerous to consumers’ health. The FCC already requires workplaces to label areas with high RFR exposure.163 It is reasonable for them to extend this rule to products that consumers use and are around longer than an 8-hour shift at work. If thousands of workers deserve a warning, then so do the millions of cellphone users.”
“Another obvious remedy is reevaluating the currently available scientific information and creating stricter standards that actually protect users. However, given the 2019 and 2020 reports from the FCC and FDA, it seems unlikely they will change their stance; both agencies need to reevaluate the steps they have taken. Given the evidence at hand, it is shocking that these two agencies do not want to take any additional steps to reduce cellphone radiation given the evidence at hand.”
“The new SAR guidelines issued by the FCC should also consider the person using the particular device. Guidelines should be stricter and more rigid for children because children have not yet fully developed and are more susceptible to the effects of RFR.”
“The FDA should reexamine their 10-year comprehensive plan to address these issues specifically, but this time considering in vivo experiments. Science does not currently have the capabilities to conduct the kind of pointed research that the FDA indicated it would need in order to consider these studies and apply the conclusions to humans.170 In vivo studies provide us with the most accurate information we can produce aside from conducting experiments on humans.171 For the FDA to completely disregard these studies is essentially selecting results to fit their agenda. Even if the 2019 National Toxicology Program’s experiment had significant errors, as the FDA indicated, their data still showed a dispositive propensity of RFR to cause tumors, and dozens of other studies have shown the same.172 Instead of trying to apply these results to humans or recognizing that there is at least some degree of risk, the FDA completely wrote off the experiments as inapplicable.173″
Additionally, the FDA should consider the viewpoints and determinations of other credible national and international organizations that they claim on their website to rely on for scientific expertise. Although many of these cited institutions believe RFR can potentially cause cancer, the FDA still believes there is absolutely no risk.”
“CONCLUSION
The FCC and FDA have failed in their obligation to prescribe safe RFR guidelines produced from wireless communication devices to protect the public health and safety. Devices are becoming more sophisticated, and their usage is as common to daily life as brushing your teeth. With each passing day, this problem is left unaddressed, air is being blown into a bubble that is one day going to burst and could leave us with one of the largest public health crises that the world has ever seen. Negligence has a price, and the result of this is one that every one of the five billion cellphone users will have to pay—even the people making the laws.174 Where is your cellphone now?”
