WASHINGTON-A Motorola Inc. technician who was a mobile-phone trouble shooter for 10 years plans shortly to sue Motorola Inc. and possibly others for allegedly causing his brain cancer. The man went on disability last fall after being diagnosed with a potentially deadly brain tumor behind the ear he used to test phones.
The technician, Michael Murray, is 33 and lives with his wife and daughter in Chicago. Murray is represented by Baltimore lawyer Joanne Suder.
Suder filed an $800 million mobile phone-cancer lawsuit in August against Motorola Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., SBC Communications Inc., the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and the Telecommunications Industry Association. The lawsuit claims Christopher Newman, a 41-year-old neurologist in Baltimore with a history of heavy cell-phone use, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in March 1998. Newman is not expected to survive the brain cancer.
The wireless industry is fighting to get the lawsuit moved from state court to federal court.
Lawsuit details
Murray’s brain cancer is life threatening. Murray has impaired vision, memory loss and continues to undergo radiation treatment and chemotherapy.
Suder said she will file the Murray lawsuit in a couple of weeks. She said other mobile-phone cancer lawsuits will follow in coming months.
“I’ve been keeping fairly busy with doctors’ appointments. I’ve just been trying to get my life together and organizing things,” said Murray. Murray had surgery last November, shortly after he was diagnosed with brain cancer.
Murray said he tested between 30 to 40 mobile phones a day for problems, sometimes working 11-hour days, between July 1990 and November 1999.
Murray said he applied for worker’s compensation, but was told by Motorola that he did not have proof that mobile-phone testing caused his brain cancer. He said Motorola personnel called him and told him the phones were safe. Murray, who claimed he was frustrated, said he settled for disability.
Motorola declined to comment on the Murray case.
None of the handful of mobile-phone cancer lawsuits filed since the early 1990s have succeeded. In May, a Cook County, Ill., judge threw out a lawsuit filed in 1992 by former Motorola engineer Robert Kane, who claimed the work-place RF exposure cause his brain tumor.
Judge Paddy McNamara said Kane lacked expert testimony to prove a mobile-phone cancer connection. Other lawsuits also have failed for that reason.
A Motorola-sponsored epidemiology study published in March did not find a link between occupational RF exposure and cancer among nearly 200,000 employees who worked for the Schaumberg, Ill.-based mobile-phone manufacturer from 1976 to 1996.
Today, there are more than 100 million mobile-phone subscribers. That number is expected to more than double in the next decade.
The wireless industry claims mobile phones do not pose a health risk, despite some studies that have found DNA breaks and genetic damage from mobile phone radio-frequency radiation.
The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees radiation-emitting devices, and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association are cooperating on additional industry-funded research.
Dr. George Carlo, who managed a six-year, $28 million research project for CTIA, said he found positive results of genetic damage from mobile-phone radiation.
Carlo, hand-picked to oversee the research program in 1993 by CTIA President Thomas Wheeler, has become highly unpopular in industry circles for being outspoken about potential health risks from mobile phones.
Carlo and syndicated columnist Martin Schram are writing a book on the research program conducted by Wireless Technology Research L.L.C., the research entity overseen by Carlo during the 1990s.
FDA commitment
Asked whether FDA is doing enough to determine whether mobile phones pose health risks, FDA spokeswoman Sharon Snider replied, “Yes, we are. FDA is committed to a policy based on strong science and we monitor-independently we review all the relevant scientific data-to ensure that our decision-making is based on the best scientific foundation. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
However, the FDA and cellular industry are not expected to conduct the breadth of scientific research-such as life-time animal studies-that FDA in the past has told Congress is necessary.
The World Health Organization and some countries are conducting mobile- phone health research. The U.S. government, for its part, has funded very few mobile-phone health studies.
Congressional queries
The two U.S. senators from Vermont, Patrick Leahy (D) and James Jeffords (R), pushed unsuccessfully this year for government-funded research. Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and John Tierney (D-Mass.) also are sponsoring legislation for mobile-phone health research funding.
“The mounting evidence on the health effects of EMR (electromagnetic radiation) is steadily building, but it’s also still largely anecdotal and often inconclusive,” said Leahy. “The public would be well served by a comprehensive baseline study or at least an objective analysis of the research record to date, and so would public policy.”
The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, began working on an updated review of mobile-phone-health research this summer-some nine months after the investigation was requested by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.). Lieberman is the running mate of Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore.
“Clearly, additional testing is necessary to try and determine if there is a cause and effect when it comes to cellular-phone use and cancer,” said Ken Johnson, press secretary for House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La). “The fact remains there are so many unanswered questions about the causes of cancer that we don’t want to jump to any conclusions without sound scientific proof.”
Murray said his life has been turned upside down.
“I am a little angered,” he said.
Asked whether he believes mobile- phone-testing caused his brain tumor, Murray replied, “Absolutely.”
He added: “I think society in general needs to be aware of the dangers of mobile phones.”
New Orleans lawsuit?
Alston & Bird, an Atlanta-based law firm, is believed to be involved in a separate mobile-phone-health related lawsuit. The firm refuses to talk about the matter
However, a lawyer involved in mobile-phone brain cancer litigation said he was aware of a case in New Orleans involving 22 defendants.
