WASHINGTON-The close of the six-year, US$27 million Wireless Technology Research program in the United States has re-energized a public debate about whether mobile telephones cause cancer or pose other health problems to the nation’s 70 million wireless subscribers. Indeed, WTR Chairman George Carlo claims current studies suggest a possible mobile phone-cancer link.
Carlo’s public disclosure in late May about a possible mobile phone-cancer link created an uproar in industry, scientific and policy-making circles, climaxing the close of a long industry-funded program and shifting the spotlight to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
WTR, based in Washington, was formed in 1995 with funding from the U.S. Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), which pledged US$25 million for five years. Its creation followed a wave of national media attention in 1993 given to a lawsuit by a man in the state of Florida who claimed his wife’s fatal brain tumor was caused by her cellular phone. The case was eventually thrown out.
The WTR program, which ended up stretching out six years and costing US$27 million, was expanded early on to investigate solutions to mobile interference to medical devices.
“I think we’re in a gray area with this right now,” said Carlo in May.
While noting the results do not rise to the level of a public-health risk, Carlo said the research raises red flags that require close attention by industry and government. As such, Carlo strongly advocates a market-surveillance approach that would monitor the industry for signals of a cancer problem and rapidly trigger intervention. He brushed off speculation that he is sensationalizing WTR results to gain continued funding. CTIA has said it will work with government to continue research, but does not plan to hire WTR for any more immediate research.
“The work of WTR has made an important contribution to the body of scientific knowledge about RF and health. With the fulfillment of that commitment and the growth of other programs worldwide, CTIA has begun to investigate how best to proceed in this area,” said CTIA President Thomas Wheeler in an 26 April letter to Dr. Elizabeth Jacobson, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
Wheeler said CTIA has budgeted for mobile phone-cancer research in the new budget. A dollar figure has not been settled on because it is unclear what research FDA will call for, according to Wheeler.
It appears any follow-up cancer research will have to be underwritten by the wireless industry because of lack of funding from Congress. That is potentially problematic because industry funding tends to undercut the credibility of research in the eyes of the public and the scientific community. FDA oversight of future RF research could mollify some of those concerns.
“We still believe there’s insufficient evidence to determine whether mobile phones pose a health risk to humans,” said Russell Owen, chief of the Radiation Biology Branch at FDA. FDA oversees mobile phone health and safety, but it does not regulate the industry.
He added, “The recent studies are interesting and certainly worth following up.”
