Medical Social Worker Request for Investigation of Conflicts of Interest at the FDA Regarding Dr. Jeffrey Shuren on Cell Phone Radiation

 

Relevant to our request for investigation filed with your office March 15th of last year (attached), what we feared and what was the basis for the urgency of our filing, has occurred. False and misleading information published by the FDA with respect to wireless communication technology safety is now the subject of an active Imminent Hazard action involving the offices of Secretary Becerra and Acting FDA Commissioner Woodcock (attached).

 

The population at risk, based on the detrimental reliance of businesses, nonprofits, NGOs, individuals, and government entities on non-existent FDA safety standards for wireless exposure, reach to the majority of the United States population. The attendant risks underscore both the validity and the urgency of our plea to the Inspector General to investigate malfeasance and conflicts of interest at the FDA with respect to this critically important and rapidly evolving issue.

• Link to PDF with Request for Investigation and details on FDA staff possible conflicts of interest.
• Link to FDA Petition  
• Link to EHT’s Documentation of FDA Misleading information 

 

Excerpts from the request for investigation submitted to Inspector General :

“In February 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), under the signature of Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, released to the public a report entitled, “Review of Published Literature between 2008 and 2018 of Relevance to Radiofrequency Radiation and Cancer”. This report was subsequently cited by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as their exclusive scientific rationale to forego updating 25 years old safety standards for wireless devices and infrastructure that were based on technologies that no longer exist.”

 

“For example, on November 1, 2018, Dr. Shuren released a confusing public statement disagreeing with the findings of a multi-million-dollar National Toxicology Program study, commissioned by Dr. Shuren’s own FDA, which concluded “clear evidence of carcinogenicity” from cell phone exposure. The statement by Dr. Shuren carried the wireless industry position that, despite the study results, cell phones were safe. Several months later, on April 24, 2019, in a communication with the FCC, Dr. Shuren advised unequivocally that cell phones have the ‘all clear’ as far as safety, even though the review cited above that was commissioned within his FDA as the basis for decisions on the cancer-causing potential of cell phones, was not completed until 9 months later, in February 2020. Our investigative findings, highlights of which are appended hereto, compelled us to reach out to you, the Inspector General, as it has revealed that the documents herein, and other prior communications and public releases, exhibit a pattern of apparent collusion and possible conspiracy among the FCC, the FDA and the many trade association and corporate appendages of the wireless industry.”

 

 

“It further shows that this behavior has been spearheaded by Dr. Shuren, who we learned is replete with both personal and professional conflicts of interest. For example, Dr. Shuren’s family benefits from a billion-dollar telecom practice in the Arnold & Porter law firm where his wife is a partner. Most alarming was this quote from the law firm’s website: “We played a lead role in every transaction undertaken by AT&T (formerly SBC) since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act…” Further, decisions by Dr. Shuren’s department with regard to diagnostic imaging can be construed to limit his ability to consider the dangers of wireless technology independently, as recognition of cell phone dangers that would compel alterations to prior FDA positions would also be disruptive to health care delivery. The sum total is that these apparent collusive and possibly conspiratorial actions serve to mislead the American public about the safety of a technology which now reaches virtually every man, woman and child in the country.”