Subject: (Carney) (Weiner) A crack in the dam? (fwd)
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 091842 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
--------------------------------------------------
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 08:05:31 -0700
From: Deb Carney
To: "Roy L. Beavers (by way of Newtons at Fruitlands )"
Subject: Re: (Weiner) A crack in the dam? (fwd)
Generally in many courts in the United States, evidence of
attempts to make a product more safe are not admissible in court because
it would chill the improvements of products. I do not know English law.
Deb
Roy L. Beavers (by way of Newtons at Fruitlands ) wrote:
> .....Does anybody know anything (authoritative) about the Wired
> News Report news service???......Notice that Roger is quoted
> below.....guru......
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 18:40:17 -0800
> From: Bob Weiner
> To: "\"Roy L. Beavers\""
> Subject: a crack in the dam?
>
> Cell Phones: Death Calling?
> Wired News Report
>
> 12:07 p.m. 26.Oct.98.PST
> Cell phone manufacturers have
> acknowledged for the first time that their
> products pose a health risk to users,
> according to a story in London's
> Independent. Lawyers claim that the
> admission will pave the way for civil suits
> against manufacturers, for conditions
> ranging from tumors, damage to the
> immune system, and memory loss.
>
> The newspaper bases its story on
> patents filed by leading cell phone
> manufacturers -- including Ericsson and
> Alcatel -– which are developing new
> equipment that's designed to minimize the
> health risks associated with using mobile
> phones.
>
> "These companies deny there is any
> health risk, yet they are -- all the time --
> applying for patents to reduce the level
> of [microwave] emissions," biologist Roger
> Coghill told the newspaper.
>
> Hitachi, for instance, is developing an
> antenna that is designed to prevent "the
> health of the user from being injured," the
> report said. Other patents refer to the
> "safe distances" between the user and
> "radiating systems." Scientists have found
> that up to 70 percent of mobile emissions
> could be absorbed by the head to create
> "hot spots" in the brain.
>
> A spokesman for Alcatel countered that
> the patent applications are a response to
> current and future health guidelines. "We
> could have chosen better wording on
> these patents," he said. "We take them
> out so we are ready to bring products to
> the market to comply with standards
> should they change. But as far as we are
> concerned, there is no scientific research
> which proves any damage could be done."
>
> Britain's biggest personal injury law firm,
> Thompsons, is pursuing that country's
> first claims against cell phone
> manufacturers, the Independent said.
>
> "The mere fact these companies are
> producing modifications with a reduced
> risk must mean there was an increased
> risk with the product they were marketing
> at the time," an attorney at the firm told
> the Independent.
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html