Subject: (Weiner) A crack in the dam? (fwd)
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 082405 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
--------------------------------------------------
.....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