WASHINGTON-Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reportedly will ask the country’s top health official to investigate whether cell phones pose health risks to consumers.
According to news reports circulating in the Indian press, Congress Member of Parliament Murli Deora recently met Singh on the cell-phone health issue. At that meeting, Singh reportedly said he would direct the health ministry to study any health hazards related to mobile-phone usage and ways to deal with them.
A press spokesman at the Embassy of India said he is attempting to verify the news reports.
According to press reports, Deora recommended that legislation should make it mandatory for all cell-phone carriers to undertake research to “unambiguously establish that cell-phone usage does not expose users to health hazards.” The legislation sought by Deora would ask mobile-phone companies to carry statutory warnings on mobile phones, much like that on packs of cigarettes, and in all publicity material pending conclusive evidence one way or the other.
In a letter to Singh, Deora is quoted in a Hindustan Times article as writing: “The range of health hazards identified by the researchers till now is alarmingly scary and mind boggling … This impending threat renders it imperative for the government to initiate urgent legislation.”
While some studies have found genetic damage and other biological effects from cell-phone radiation, government health agencies in the United States and overseas maintain that most research to date does not link mobile phones to cancer or other diseases. At the same time, health officials say they cannot guarantee the safety of cell phones until more research is conducted.
The wireless health controversy has triggered lawsuits here and abroad, and several suits remain pending in the United States. To date, the cellular industry has triumphed in every lawsuit, with some judges dismissing cases for lack of scientific evidence.
On a related front, Reuters reports Italian doctors are increasingly concerned that excessive text messaging on mobile phones could cause acute tendonitis. The issue recently received significant attention in Italian newspapers.
