Subject: ABC 20/20 pre-show press statement (Kelley)..
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 111252 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers"
To: emfguru
--------------------------------------------------
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 07:49:32 -0700
From: Libby Kelley
To: rbeavers@llion.org
Subject: ABC 20/20 pre-show press statement
Roy:
I picked this press release up off web site. It predates
the showing. This site also carries transcripts but the list is about 5
weeks out of date. I have requested a transcript. Anyone ca. Once I get
a copy, I will forward it if you don't have it out there yet.
Libby
Wireless Worries?
New Studies Call for More
Research, Some
Scientists Say
20/20 arranged for a
leading research
laboratory in Europe to
conduct tests on
five popular cell phone
models to
determine how much microwave
radiation can be
absorbed into the head
of a cell phone user,
depending on how
the phones are held.
(ABCNEWS)
By Brian Ross
ABCNEWS.com
Oct. 20 — While the cell phone industry has
assured consumers for years that cellular phones
are completely safe, the industry’s former
research director has now come forward to say
this can no longer be presumed.
“The industry had come out and said
that there were thousands of studies that
proved that wireless phones are safe,
and the fact was that there were no
studies that were directly relevant,” says
Dr. George Carlo.
For the past six years, Carlo ran the
cell phone industry’s $25 million
research program, which has studied the
effects of microwave radiation from cell
phones.
“We’ve moved into an area where we now have some
direct evidence of possible harm from cellular phones,”
Carlo says in an interview with ABCNEWS’ 20/20.
Although Carlo does not say that cell phones are
unsafe, he does say that more research is needed.
The $200-billion-a-year cell phone industry maintains
the devices are safe.
“There is a preponderance of evidence that there is not
a linkage between the use of wireless phones and health
effects,” says Thomas Wheeler, president of the Cellular
Telecommunications Industry Association, the industry’s
trade group.
The industry has announced that it supports and will
sponsor follow-up research.
Electromagnetic Waves Sent Into Brain
What many of the country’s 80 million cell phone users
may not know is that cell phones send electromagnetic
waves into users’ brains. In fact, every cell phone model
sold in the United States has a specific measurement of
how much microwave energy from the phone can
penetrate the brain.
Depending on how close the cell phone antenna is to
the head, as much as 60 percent of the microwave
radiation is absorbed by and actually penetrates the area
around the head, some reaching an inch to an
inch-and-a-half into the brain.
“This is the first generation that has put relatively
high-powered transmitters against the head, day after
day,” says Dr. Ross Adey, who has worked for industry
and government for decades studying microwave
radiation, and is one of the most respected scientists in the
field.
Position Matters
The cell phone industry says every phone it sells is safe
and meets government radiation safety limits. But tests
conducted by 20/20 and being made public on tonight’s
program have found that some of the country’s most
popular cell phones can — depending on how they’re
held — exceed the radiation limit.
20/20 reports that government testing guidelines are so
vague that a phone can pass the Federal Communications
Commission’s requirements when tested in one position
and exceed those maximum levels when held in another
position.
The cell phone industry says every phone sold in the
United States meets the federal safety standard, and that
there is a huge margin of safety built into the standard.
“There isn’t data to show that what is happening has a
health effect,” Wheeler says, adding that there is no need
for Americans to cut back on their cell phone use.
Along with the test results, the 20/20 story shows how
users can significantly reduce their exposure to microwave
radiation from cell phones.
Richard Allyn and Brenda Breslauer contributed to
this report.
Copyright ©1999 ABC News Internet Ventures.
Libby Kelley
Executive Director
Council on Wireless Technology Impacts
aka ~ Ad Hoc Association of Parties Concerned about
the FCC's Radiofrequency Radiation Health and Safety Rules
____________________________
Website: http://www.ccwti.org
Phone - 415-892-1973
Fax - 415-892-3108
Address:
936-B Seventh Street, PMB 206
Novato, California 94945
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com