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Federal efforts
to research the possible health risks of cellular phones and
inform the public of the results are lacking.
A new report from the General Accounting
Office (GAO) criticizes the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for not
keeping consumers updated about the latest scientific knowledge
on the safety of mobile phones.
It also expresses concerns of federal
investigators that a research partnership between the FDA
and the cellular wireless communication industry gives
too much power to the industry to withhold study results from
the public.
The report came as Sen. John Corzine (D-N.J.)
and Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) announced new legislation
to ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving. Corzine
said that mobile phone use while driving quadruples the chance
of having a car accident.
Americans' cell phone use has skyrocketed
-- from 16 million users in 1994 to some 110 million today.
This rapid increase has been accompanied by fears that heavy
use of the devices could lead to brain cancer or other health
problems.
The report scrutinizes industry-funded studies on cell phone
users' radiation exposure, which it says are not standardized
to deliver consistent and reliable information. Industry groups
and the FCC are working to come up with standards for cell
phone emission testing but have not yet done so.
The report also criticizes a cooperative
agreement between the FDA and the Cellular Telecommunications
& Internet Association (CTIA), an industry trade group.
The cooperative is supposed to fund and conduct research on
cell phone safety. But investigators said the
agreement allows the industry to decide who conducts safety
studies and allows them final say on whether to release the
details to the public.
We cannot have a cooperative agreement
where an industry which has a stake in the results can handcuff
a federal agency.
Both the FCC and FDA provide consumer
information on cell phone safety on their Web sites.
But the FCC
information does ''not meet general consumers' need for clear
and concise information,'' and the FDA's information has not
been updated since 1999,
the GAO report states.
General Accounting Office
Report, Washington DC, May 22, 2001
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