The Honorable Senator Rosalyn Baker
Hawaii State Capitol Building, Room 230
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
February 23, 2014
Dear Senator Baker,
We commend the Senate Committee on Health for having passed SB2571. Recent scientific research conducted affirms the wisdom of this legislation. Therefore, in the interest of the citizens of Hawaii please allow this bill to be heard and hopefully passed. We are not only concerned about brain tumors, but also as phones are currently carried today (in pockets while on) we are concerned about damage to fetuses, female reproductive organs and damage to sperm.
Please consider recently published scientific information:
January, 2014: New International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) document on the Electromagnetic Spectrum released: detailed 1-page visual with reference to cell phone exposure as a possible human carcinogen acknowledged by the National Cancer Institute. http://monographs.
April, 2013: International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization issued its Monograph that addresses whether cellular telephone RF EMF radiation presents a risk of cancer to users. The IARC re-affirmed its official classification that cellular radiation is a Group 2B carcinogen along with lead, automobile exhaust, and other toxic substances including DDT, heptachlor, and styrene and they have now released their 480 page Monograph that provides the details of the basis of the classification in this the most significant health report on mobile phone radiation ever published. The Monograph concludes that:
“Due to closer proximity of the phone to the brain of children compared with adults, the average exposure from use of the same mobile phone is higher by a factor of 2 in a child’s brain and higher by a factor of 10 in the bone marrow of the skull (p. 408),
“Positive associations have been observed between exposure to radiofrequency radiation from wireless phones and glioma and acoustic neuroma. (p. 421),
“Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields are possibly carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2B)
Other recent sources:
- A new study by breast cancer surgeons found a link to unusual breast tumors in young women who keep cell phones in their bras and have no genetic markers for the disease; http://www.hindawi.com/crim/
medicine/2013/354682/ - A December, 2011 study from the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California foundstatistically significant annual increases in frontal and temporal lobe grade IV brain cancers (glioblastoma multiforme) from 1992 to 2006. Those are the areas of the brain closest to where the cell phone is typically held.http://www.sciencedirect.com/
science/article/pii/ S1878875011006863 - In October, 2013 the Italian Supreme Court ruled in favor of a worker who developed a tumor in the head due to long-term use of mobile phones on the job. Importantly, the ruling underscored discrepancies between the low evidence of risk found by industry-funded studies and the higher evidence of risk found by independent studies. http://www.reuters.com/
article/2012/10/19/us-italy- phones-idUSBRE89I0V320121019 - Environmental and Human Health Inc. “Cell Phones: Technology, Exposures, Health Effects”http://www.ehhi.org/reports/
cellphones/ - On July 12, 2012 the American Academy of Pediatrics sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging the FCC to open a formal inquiry into radiation standards for cell phones and other wireless products adding “The FCC has not assessed the standards for cell phone radiation since 1996 and that “children are… disproportionately impacted by all environmental exposures, including cell phone radiation”.http://wifiinschools.com/
uploads/3/0/4/2/3042232/ american_academy_of_ pediatrics_letter_asking_for_ government_review_of_levels. pdf
The state of Hawaii faces potential major liability costs for employees that may be diagnosed with a brain tumor who use cell phones as part of their work. Also, with the pending epidemic of brain cancers and other diseases attributed to wireless radiation, this will have an impact on public health care costs in Hawaii. It is estimated that a single case of initial treatment of one brain tumor averages $500,000.
It is also relevant to note that on February 26, 2013 Verizon Communications Inc. reported the following liability risk in its Annual Report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
“…our wireless business also faces personal injury and consumer class action lawsuits relating to the alleged health effects of wireless phones or radio frequency transmitters, and class action lawsuits that challenge marketing practices and disclosures relating to alleged adverse health effects of handheld wireless phones. We may incur significant expenses in defending these lawsuits. In addition we may be required to pay significant awards or settlements.”
In the light of the evidence above we impress upon you to allow SB2571 to be heard toward the goal of informing consumers as to safer use of this ubiquitous device. People deserve the right to know about safety information currently embedded within the phones or printed in small type in pamphlets few read. We do not advocate against this valuable technology. We want users to be informed at point of sale how to use the device as intelligently and safely as possible. We applaud your efforts to ensure consumer protection by promoting this basic right.
Very truly yours,
Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine, American Legacy Foundation Distinguished Professor in Tobacco Control and Director, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
Devra Lee Davis, PhD, MPH, Founder and President of Environmental Health Trust. Presidential Appointee.
David O. Carpenter, MD, Director, Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany
Morando Soffritte, MD, Professor and Scientific Director Ramazzini Institute, Bologna, Italy and General Secretary Collegium Ramazzii, Bologna, Italy
Anthony B. Miller, MD; former dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Toronto; Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology, and IARC expert advisor
Annie Sasco, MD, MOH, ScM, DrPh, Director of Research Epidemiology for Cancer Prevention Inserm (French NIH) , Bordeaux University France, former IARC Unit Chief, and former Acting Chief, WHO program for Cancer Control
Dariusz Leszcynski, PhD, IARC expert advisor
Elihu Richter, MD, Hadassah Medical Center, School of Public Health, Israel
Yael Stein, MD, Hadassah Medical Center, School of Public Health, Israel
Prof. Nesrin Seyhan , Medical faculty of Gazi University, Founding Chair, Biophysics Dept., Founding Director, GNRK Center, Panel Member, NATO STO HFM, Scientific Secretariat Member, ICEMS, Advisory Committee, WHO EMF.
Prof. Dr. Suleyman Kaplan, Editor of Journal of Experimental and Clinical Medicine,President of Turkish Society for stereology,Board member of Journal Chemical Neuroanatomy (Elsevier),Director of Health Sciences Institute
Ondokuz Mayıs University,Head of Department of Histology and Embryology Ondokuz Mayıs University, Turkey
Dr. Igor Beliae, Cancer Research Institute at Slovak Academy of Science, Slovak Republic
Nancy Alderman, President, Environment and Human Health, Inc.
Ellen Marks, Director, California Brain Tumor Association
Cynthia Franklin, Director, Consumer for Safer Phones
