In June, San Francisco passed a cell-phone "Right-to-Know" ordinance that would require stores to inform customers of how much radiation each cell phone emits. The industry group CTIA-The Wireless Association, which insists that cells phones are safe, filed a lawsuit last month seeking to block the law.
John Walls, CTIA's vice president of public affairs, said the law would mislead consumers by creating "the impression that there's a difference in safety between one device and another," even though all the phones on the market meet Federal Communications Commission safety standards.
"The FCC and science tells us they're all safe," Walls said.
Davis said the wireless industry appears to be "following the playbook" of big tobacco, which denied the risks of smoking until the evidence was incontrovertible. Walls calls the comparison "outrageous.
"It's a little frustrating, to be honest with you," Walls said. "We're being painted in some circles as being the bad guys in this scenario, when all we do is defer to the scientific conclusions of world-renowned public-health organizations and agencies."
So, should you be taking steps to limit your cell-phone radiation exposure, like using a headset or speaker phone or turning it off when you're not using it?
No need, said Walls.
"Science tells us those types of precautions aren't necessary," he said. "But if they provide a higher comfort level for people, certainly that's their prerogative and their right to do that."
But Davis said if you ignore her advice, "you're treating yourself and your children like lab rats."
"From a public-health point of view, we don't want to be in the position, 20 years from now, of proving that cell phones were dangerous," she said. "We want to avoid what could become a catastrophe by taking simple steps to reduce exposure now."
