Radio Show

Cell Phone

Host Intro: According to some scientists, high use of cell phones among young children might increase their risk of exposure to harmful radiation.  In Great Britain, the advisory board on radiological hazards, the Health Protection Agency, recommends that parents limit young kids to using cell phones ?only for essential purposes.?  They?re concerned that growing children?s brains might be susceptible to damage if cell phone radiation radiation is dangerous--and currently, they say, we have not done enough studies to answer that question. Meanwhile, in the USA, the FDA says that cell phones are safe.

This month on For Your Health we'll look at cell phones and industry funding.  We?ll start today by speaking with an expert who?s been recommended commentators favored by Motorola, a major manufacturer of cell phones.  We?ll follow up in our next installment by speaking, in depth, with Jerry Phillips, a scientist who says his career was destroyed when he published research in a peer-reviewed journal that indicated cell phone radiation might affect human cells . . . Jerry says Motorola tried to block him from publishing this.

Let's begin with this segment, talking with Linda Erdreich, an epidemiologist who does evaluations of cell phone safety.

Groups Featured in this report include: Motorola-Radio Frequency Health, motorola.com/rfhealth
Microwave News--with Louis Slesin, http://www.microwavenews.com

Also in this Saga

Cell Phone Safety and Industry-Part 2 (Jerry Phillips)	Jerry Phillips says that Motorola tried to block him from publishing accurate information on cell phone radiation.
Cell Phone Safety and Industry-Part 3 (Phillips)	Part 2--Jerry Phillips concludes his account of how he says that Motorola worked to block accurate information about cell phone radiation.
Cell Phone Safety and Industry-Part 4 Blake Levitt	Interview with Blake Levitt--journalist and cellphone industry watchdog.

Full Text:

Are Cell Phones safe enough for use by kids as young as five years old?  A recent Business Week article announces that Disney plans to market cell phone to this market agressively.  In some ways, the plan sounds great?kids could carry cell phones that help their folks keep track of them . . . but eventually proves according to some scientists, this might increase their risk of exposure to harmful radiation.  In Great Britain, the advisory board on radiological hazards, the Health Protection Agency, recommends that parents limit young kids to using cell phones ?only for essential purposes.?  They?re concerned that growing children?s brains might be susceptible to damage if cell phone radiation to be dangerous. Meanwhile, in the USA, the FDA says that cell phones are safe.

But can the FDA be trusted?  According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a recent survey of nearly 1,000 FDA scientists ?demonstrates a pervasive and dangerous political influence of science at the FDA.?

On the anonymous survey, 20 per cent of the FDA scientists reported that they had experienced their work being manipulated or suppressed, having been "asked, for non-scientific reasons, to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information or their conclusions in an FDA scientific document."

These scientists, most of them senior FDA scientists, reported that they feared retaliation if they expressed their opinions in public.  Less than half reported that they think the "FDA routinely provides complete and accurate information to the public."

And what about health-related research funded by the industries who profit the most when the studies show ?no health effect??  For many health-related issues, including the safety of cell phones, the vast majority of U-S research is been funded by the industries, not by any independent group.

So . . . this month on For Your Health we?re going to look at cell phones and industry funding.  We?ll start today by speaking with an expert who?s been recommended by Motorola, a major manufacturer of cell phones.  We?ll follow that next by speaking, in depth, with Jerry Phillips, a scientist who says his career was destroyed when he published research in a peer-reviewed journal that indicated cell phone radiation might affect human cells . . . Jerry says Motorola tried to block him from publishing this.  We?ll conclude the month by talking with watchdogs of the cell phone industry, and what they say concerned consumers can do.

So let?s begin, by talking with an epidemiologist recommended by experts who are favored by Motorola.