The suit, being handled by Kenneth A. Jacobsen, a lawyer from Media and a class-action specialist, alleges that makers of cell phones are negligent because cell phones are not sold with headsets to reduce users' exposure to radiation, particularly to the head.
Wireless-industry representatives insist that scientific evidence clears cell phones of any health risk.
Jacobsen wants the case certified a class action, and wants all Pennsylvania cell-phone users furnished with headsets to mitigate exposure to radiation. The suit also seeks unspecified punitive damages for the industry's allegedly marketing dangerous products and failing to inform the public about possible health risks.
"We aren't alleging brain tumors from the use of cell phones, but that the radio frequency waves emitted do cause structural changes, chromosomal and genetic damage," Jacobsen said.
Jacobsen has teamed with Peter G. Angelos, owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, to bring not only the Pennsylvania case, but also lawsuits that seek class-action status in state courts in Maryland, New Jersey and New York. "We are cocounsel on every one of the cases," Jacobsen said.
Angelos, whose law firm won large personal-injury verdicts against asbestos-makers and the tobacco industry, is lead attorney in another case, now in federal court in Baltimore, filed by a Maryland neurologist who contends that his years of cell-phone use caused a malignant brain tumor. Angelos could not be reached for comment.
The 22 defendants named in the Philadelphia lawsuit include Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp., NEC America, and Ericsson Wireless Inc., as well as telephone carriers Verizon Communications Inc., Sprint PCS, and Nextel Communications Inc.
