WASHINGTON-The nation’s first Wi-Fi health lawsuit has been withdrawn by parents of Illinois school children, continuing the trend of failed litigation alleging health risks from wireless communications.
In this case, the class action filed last year against Oak Park Elementary School District 97 claimed wireless local area networks installed in school buildings posed a danger to students.
An attorney representing Safe Technology for Oak Park did not return a call for comment, but indications are that parents were dissuaded from pursuing the lawsuit after lawyers for Apple Computer Inc. argued the state suit was improper because it involved a federal question.
The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed July 9, according to court documents.
On a related front, an Illinois appeals court late last month affirmed a lower state court’s rejection of a lawsuit against Motorola Inc. and others that claimed consumer privacy rights were violated in a cell-phone epidemiology study.
Elsewhere, U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake rejected the wireless industry’s request that Christopher Newman-whose $800 million brain cancer lawsuit was dismissed in 2002-pay nearly $57,000 in court costs.
