CEO DATELINE - CTIA sues city on cell phone safety warnings
CEO DATELINE - CTIA sues city on cell phone safety warnings
- June 9, 2015 |
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Walt Williams
Association alleges new ordinance has no scientific basis
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CTIA-The Wireless Association is taking the city of Berkeley, Calif., to court for a new ordinance requiring retailers to post notices about the alleged health effects of using cell phones, including cancer.
The ordinance, approved in May, requires notices warning customers about health risks supposedly linked to radio-frequency radiation emitted by cell phones. The notices must also state that risks may be greater for children.
The link between cell phone exposure and cancer is controversial. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention flatly states there is no science linking the two. Other institutions, such as the American Cancer Society, note that a few studies have shown a correlation, but the bulk of research has found no connection.
CTIA alleges the Berkeley ordinance "requires retailers to make unsubstantiated and false statements about the alleged effects of cellphones, which would contradict the findings from independent health and scientific organizations."
"It is unconstitutional to force cellphone retailers to communicate false, misleading and inflammatory information about their products," said Theodore Olson, the attorney representing CTIA in the lawsuit. "It is unfortunate that Berkeley would incite unfounded public anxiety and fear about a product that is so important to its citizens' everyday lives."
This is not the first time CTIA has sued a city for requiring the posting of warning notices. It also sued San Francisco for a similar 2010 ordinance. The city later dropped the ordinance, but not before CTIA moved its trade show out of San Francisco in protest.
The Berkeley lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for Northern California.
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