WASHINGTON-Mobile-phone industry lawyers asked a court here to dismiss six brain-cancer suits, arguing the plaintiffs’ complaints are pre-empted by federal law.
“The federal government set a single, uniform, consensus standard for RF [radio frequency]emissions from wireless after a careful and deliberate balance of safety and technological benefits for American consumers. Plaintiffs’ claims would require stricter RF emission standards that the federal standard, in violation of three different pre-emption doctrines,” stated industry lawyers in a Nov. 30 brief.
A new mobile-phone radiation safety standard is currently being developed that some critics say will be less stringent than the current one.
In July, U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake returned the six brain-cancer cases to the Superior Court for the District of Columbia Circuit. Blake in 2002 threw out an $800 million brain-cancer suit against Motorola Inc. and others, saying plaintiffs’ lawyers failed to provide adequate scientific evidence to justify sending the case to trial.
The cellular industry has triumphed in every health suit since mobile phones first became associated with brain cancer 12 years ago in a Florida lawsuit that was ultimately dismissed.
Government health officials here and overseas say research to date indicates mobile phones do not pose health risks to subscribers, but they say more research is necessary to clarify the issue. Plaintiffs’ lawyers and industry officials point to different studies that they say support their claims about mobile-phone safety.
The mobile-phone industry is awaiting a decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on five class-action suits rejected on federal pre-emption grounds by Blake in 2003. The suits seek to force mobile-phone carriers to supply consumers with headsets to reduce their exposure to radiation.
