Subject:  (Lundquist) Inaction of federal regulators (fwd)
Date:     Thu, 29 Apr 1999 120823 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 25 Apr 99 22:18:59 MDT
From: MARJORIE LUNDQUIST 
To: rbeavers@llion.org
Subject: Inaction of federal regulators

Roy, I have been writing some strong letters to the Center for Devices and
Radiological Health, (within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) to ask why
they won't require that warning labels be put on cellular phones as a
condition of their sale in the USA.  In abbreviated form, their answer is
"because there is no proof that cellular phones are harmful".

I did get clarification on one point:  While pre-marketing evidence of safety
is required by the FDA for drugs and for electronic devices used in medicine,
this is NOT required for consumer electronic devices!!  In other words,
consumer products can be placed on the market without prior testing to prove
their safety, but prior testing to prove safety is mandated for drugs and
medical electronic devices.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission will move quickly to take consumer
products off the market on the basis of initial evidence suggestive of a
hazard, but the NCDRH insists on waiting until it has conclusive evidence.
Maybe we all should be writing our Congressional Representatives & Senators to
ask why the federal government is giving us a lesser degree of protection
against electronic consumer products than electronic medical devices, and
asking that pre-market safety studies be required for consumer products, the
same as for drugs and medical devices.  And we should probably ask that the
Consumer Product Safety Commission be given authority to regulate consumer
electronic products that emit microwave radiation, until such time as the
National Center for Devices and Radiological Health establishes an exposure
standard for microwave radiation, or institutes pre-market safety testing
requirements for consumer electronic products. -- Marjorie




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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html