WASHINGTON-The General Accounting Office this week is expected to send drafts of a mobile-phone health report to key government agencies, suggesting congressional investigators are on track to complete by early May an investigation whose results could greatly impact wireless health policy and research funding in coming years.
GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, plans to seek comment on the draft report-requested by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.)-from the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Communications Commission and the National Institutes of Health.
After collecting input from the three agencies and possibly others, GAO will submit the mobile-phone health report to Lieberman and Markey by May 7. The lawmakers have the option of releasing the report immediately or holding it for a week or two.
The report, depending on its findings and policy recommendations, could spark congressional hearings. This GAO study-the second on mobile-phone cancer questions-will be issued at a time of renewed mobile-phone brain- cancer litigation and mushrooming concern about mobile-phone tower construction near schools and homes.
Colin Crowell, an aide to Markey, said the Massachusetts Democrat-the first lawmaker to address the mobile-phone health issue in Congress after a 1993 Florida lawsuit made national news-will consider whether to reintroduce research-funding legislation after reading the report.
“We’re curious and eager to get the report and digest it,” said Crowell. Then, according to Crowell, Markey will decide whether to move forward with legislation.
A Lieberman aide said no decision has been made on whether to hold hearings.
The Vermont delegation, comprised of Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.) and Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), is preparing legislation that allows local officials to reject tower applications for health reasons and would authorize millions of dollars for federal funding of mobile- phone cancer research.
One lawsuit against the mobile- phone industry, seeking $800 million by 41-year-old neurologist Christopher Newman, is being litigated by multimillionaire Baltimore lawyer Peter Angelos. More recently, a lawsuit was filed in Atlanta against wireless firms on behalf of wireless user Brian Barrett.
In 1999, mobile-phone subscriber Phil Medica sued Motorola Inc. and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. The case is still in progress. Similar suits are expected to be filed in Texas and California in coming weeks, according to sources. Additional suits, according to lawyers associated with the cases, will follow.
Workers’ compensation cases, involving allegations that occupational mobile phone radiation caused brain tumors, have been filed in Illinois and California.
Meanwhile, class-action health-related cases are being litigated in Illinois and Louisiana. In the New Orleans case, where plaintiffs maintain that headsets should be supplied with mobile phones because of uncertainty about health risks, a federal judge on March 15 turned back industry’s attempt to appeal a recent decision that shot down the argument that health suits are federally pre-empted by the Electronic Product Radiation Control Act.
Much has changed since the 1994 GAO report, which concluded there was insufficient research to determine whether mobile phones pose a health risk to consumers. At that time, there were 16 million wireless phone subscribers. Today, there are more than 111 million wireless consumers.
Back then, mobile phones were for talking only. Today, mobile phones are evolving into sophisticated mobile portable Internet devices that are being aggressively marketed to baby-boomers and their family members. And today, thanks to attractive pricing packages, wireless subscribers are spending more hours talking on their phones.
All of the mobile-phone cancer suits involve individuals that made heavy use of the popular wireless gadgets.
The FDA, which has jurisdiction over radiation-emitting devices, has not seen the need to recall cell phones for health reasons. At the same time, FDA concedes mobile phones cannot be presumed completely safe until more research is conducted.
The FDA is working with the wireless industry on research to follow-up studies that found genetic damage in human blood from mobile-phone radiation. The findings were included in a six-year, $28 million research project-funded by wireless carriers and manufacturers-that ended in controversy when the chief scientist-Dr. George Carlo-and the cellular industry had a falling out over his findings and recommendations.
The GAO report will scrutinize the research agreement between the FDA and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. In addition, the GAO report will look at the body of research on mobile-phone bioeffects and how federal agencies have interpreted them.
GAO investigators also will scrutinize how radio-frequency radiation exposure guidelines are crafted and what the government is doing-or not doing-to ensure compliance is being enforced. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided against hearing challenges to a federal appeals court ruling in New York that upheld federal agency RF radiation rules.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, GAO will make policy recommendations. Those recommendations could figure big as lawmakers, like Lieberman or a Markey, decide what to do next.
Carlo, who in a new book alleges being pressured and intimidated while overseeing mobile-phone cancer research for the wireless industry, said it will take someone smart and courageous-like a Lieberman or a Markey-to take control of the health issue.
“The industry has been successful at turning this into a political issue instead of a saving-lives issue,” said Carlo.
The wireless industry insists the preponderance of research has failed to find adverse health effects from mobile-phone radiation. Others, though, point to studies that show DNA breaks, genetic damage, memory impairment, increased brain tumors in laboratory rodents, eye cancer and other health effects from mobile-phone radiation.
