The City of San Francisco will on Thursday hold a vote on whether to implement a controversial law which would make it mandatory for phone retailers to warn people about cellular radiation.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors already won unanimous approval for its “Right to Ordinance” last week from the City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee, in an unprecedented move.
Just three months ago, San Francisco had shelved a previous attempt to legislate on warning consumers about radiofrequency exposure, but after tinkering with the wording a bit, the bill is back on the table and looks set to go through.
Brainchild of Supervisor John Avalos, the law would mean consumers were entitled to a fact sheet listing the specific absorption rate (SAR) of all phones sold in the store, along with facts on RF energy and tips to limit one’s exposure to it.
Though this has delighted environmentalists across the country, it has also deeply angered the wireless industry, specifically the CTIA lobby, which has already moved to sue San Francisco on the grounds that the ordinance is not constitutional and misleading.
This time around, however, San Francisco aims to re-introduce the ordinance with a few compromises, namely by replacing specific radiation details with more general warnings. Shop owners also don’t have to specifically mention cancer as a risk of cell phone usage, as the first draft of the ordinance had suggested.
The final vote for the ordinance happens on July 26, after which Mayor Ed Lee will have 10 days to sign it into law.
San Francisco moves to mandate radiation warnings on phones
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