Former CDC Scientist Dr. Christopher Portier Barred As Expert Witness in Major Cell Phone Cancer Lawsuit

Microwave News just reported that Dr. Chris Portier was barred as expert witness in Murray v. Motorola – a major cell phone cancer lawsuit that has been winding though the courts for years. Christopher Portier PhD was formerly the Director of the United States National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta and the Director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.The Judge denied plaintiffs’ motion to include him this morning. His qualifications were not the issue but rather, it would “disrupt existing schedule and detrimentally affect the orderliness and efficiency of any trial.”

In March, Portier finalized a 176-page expert report with 443 references that concludes that “The evidence on an association between cellular phone use and the risk of glioma in adults is quite strong” and “In my opinion, RF exposure probably causes gliomas and neuromas and, given the human, animal and experimental evidence, I assert that, to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, the probability that RF exposure causes gliomas and neuromas is high.”

“They are rejecting one of the best informed experts on this issue in the world and the Court will be operating at a gross disadvantage,” stated Devra Davis PhD, MPH pointing to the fact that Portier represented the CDC at the 2011 World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO/IARC) review of the carcinogenicity of wireless radiofrequency radiation in 2011.

On April 1, 2021 the defense lawyers –Terry Dee of McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago on behalf of himself and 37 other lawyers at 23 law firms representing the cell phone companies had asked the DC court to not allow Christopher Portier to be an expert witness in this case arguing in their filing that, “Allowing a new expert four months before the long-planned Daubert hearing would disrupt the existing schedule and unfairly prejudice Defendants.”

News on the lawsuit from Microwave News “Chris Portier RF Evaluation: Defense Seeks To Bar Portier Testimony”

The liability lawsuit, Murray et al. v Motorola, Inc. et al., was filed in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia against the telecommunications industry. The plaintiffs in the case are suing the telecommunications industry for damages because they developed brain cancer after years of using a cell phone up to their head. Most of the plaintiffs have passed away. Court dates are set for July 12-23, 2021.

Some History

In 2011, Dr. Portier was selected to represent the CDC on an expert working group convened by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization to review the carcinogenicity of wireless radiofrequency radiation.

The working group met for two weeks and ultimately decided to determine that RF radiation was “possibly carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2B). In 2015 during the BIOEM Conference Portier officially called for invoking the precautionary principle. Since 2011, the published research in both humans and animals linking wireless radiation to cancer and tumors has substantially increased as Dr. Portier documents in his research review.

Portier attempted to have the CDC update their webpage with the IARC classification in 2011. However, after he left the CDC, EHT’s FOIA investigations found, the CDC webpage was redrafted numerous times to include the 2011 classification and finally posted in a watered down wording three years later. Then in 2016, the CDC flip-flopped on recommending people take “caution” with cell phone radiation and removed advice about children. As of 2021, the WHO/IARC advisory committee recommends re-evaluating wireless radiation “as a high priority.”

Numerous other WHO/IARC experts have more recently stated that the 2011 classification needs to be strengthened as recent research continues to show a link between wireless exposure and cancer. Read their statements here.

Selected quotes from Dr. Portier’s Expert Report to the Court

“In conclusion, an association has been established between the use of cellular telephones and the risk of gliomas and chance, bias and confounding are unlikely to have driven this finding.”
“The evidence on an association between cellular phone use and the risk of acoustic neuromas [ANs] in adults is strong.”
“The central question to ask of animal cancer studies is “Can RF increase the incidence of tumors in laboratory animals?” The answer, with high confidence, is yes.”
“There is sufficient evidence to suggest that both oxidative stress and genotoxicity are caused by exposure to RF and that these mechanisms could be the reason why RF can induce cancer in humans.”
“RF exposure probably causes gliomas and acoustic neuromas, and given the human, animal and experimental evidence, I assert that, to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, the probability that RF exposure causes these cancers is high.”
In conclusion, there is sufficient evidence from these laboratory studies to conclude that RF can cause tumors in experimental animals with strong findings for gliomas, heart Schwannomas and adrenal pheochromocytomas in male rats and harderian gland tumors in male mice and uterine polyps in female mice. There is also some evidence supporting liver tumors and lung tumors in male and possibly female mice.”
“In my opinion, RF exposure probably causes gliomas and neuromas and, given the human, animal and experimental evidence, I assert that, to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, the probability that RF exposure causes gliomas and neuromas is high.”