What a long, strange trip it’s been for San Francisco’s attempt to require disclosure of the possible dangers of cell phone use, the “Cell Phone Right to Know Act.: After years spent in court, a proposed settlement would dump the law for good — but might save SF taxpayers some dough.

Proposed in 2010 my then-mayor Gavin Newsom, the measure was supposed to require cellphone retailers to provide customers with information about the possible dangers associated with radiation from the devices as well as ways that users can reduce their exposure.

A cell phone industry group, CTIA, filed suit to prevent the law from moving forward, claiming the city ordinance violates retailers’ free speech rights by forcing them to display information they consider “grossly misleading.”

The group also contends the ordinance conflicts with federal law, ands is seeking repeal of the ordinance as well as attorneys’ fees from San Francisco taxpayers.

The bill was supposed to go into effect September 1, 2010, but has been pushed back repeatedly, and is now “on hold for the time being,” Mark Westlund, spokesman for the Department of the Environment, told the Appeal in April of 2011.

http://sfappeal.com/2013/04/settlement-might-spell-the-end-for-gavin-newsoms-ill-fated-cell-phone-right-to-know-law/

http://mb.com.ph/articles/393113/cell-phones-and-our-health#.URe6l2ddy00

• Do you know that placing a cell phone call in your car is like sitting inside of a microwave oven. When you use the phone in the car, the shielding and tinting on newer automobile models cause the electromagnetic waves to bounce back and forth inside the cabin of the vehicle. Exposing yourself and the other passengers to increased levels of electromagnetic radiation.

Among the many environmental pollutants we have to live with in an urban setting, many people are unaware of the health impacts of mobile phone radiation. A new smart phone app called Too Close for Android was recently launched to issue a reminder when the phone is too near to the body for safe use. As its name implies, the software tells users when they are holding the phone too close to the head.

The public health hazards of mobile phone radiation have been controversial since the beginning of manufacture when the microwave frequency bands were suddenly authorized by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). The long term health consequences of such a decision could not really be discovered until after many years of wide use. However, scientists are becoming increasingly concerned as billions of these devices are now in active use worldwide. Several researchers have found a definitive link between cell phone use and cellular damage. Dr. Peter Franch of the University of Sydney in Australia has even gone so far as saying “Cells are permanently damaged by cellular phone frequencies”. So is there a link between mobile phones and cancer? (continue reading)

Learn more at: http://greenswan.org/

Many people are unaware that they are exposed to cell phone radiation when their cell phones are in standby mode. This occurs because their cell phone contacts the nearest cell tower periodically to update its location.

In a moving vehicle, cell phones in standby mode contact cell towers more frequently. Thus, exposure to cell phone radiation from one’s cell phone is greater in transit.

Two Swiss researchers, Damiano Urbinello and Martin Roosli, set out to measure personal cell phone radiation exposure during car, bus and train trips when one’s own phone was in standby mode.

Their study just published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology identified a source of cell phone radiation that may constitute a public health problem. Namely, secondhand exposure to cell phone radiation from other people’s cell phones can be considerable while traveling on buses and trains (1).

read more: http://www.prlog.org/12010018-secondhand-exposure-to-cell-phone-radiation-an-emerging-public-health-problem.html

Smart phones are a big part of our daily lives, and that could be causing health problems.

4 Ways Cell Phones Make Us Sick

We found these 4 ways they could be hurting your health from Yahoo! Health.

1. It’s destroying your ability to focus.

2. It’s making you sick.

3. It’s hurting your eyes.

4. It’s causing you stress.

Read the full story at: http://www.todaysthv.com/news/article/231540/2/4-ways-you-cell-phone-may-hurt-your-health

We take them everywhere, which one reason mobile phones get so … germy. People set them on public bathroom sinks, on mats at the gym and drop them on floors and hand them to friends to show off photos.

When you combine a cellphone’s proximity to your ears, nose and mouth with its bacteria-loving warmth, the result can be harmful to your health. This hazard, says Jeffrey Cain, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians and chief of family medicine at Children’s Hospital Colorado, often goes unnoticed. “Some things we think are personal are actually more public than we imagine.” Bacteria from a phone can cause flu, pinkeye or diarrhea, says Dr. Cain.

For people who want to keep a clean touch screen, there is a disconnect between what doctors and medical researchers advise and what device makers suggest for phone sanitizing.

While products are marketed specifically for mobile-phone cleaning, they can sometimes damage the phone’s screen coating or fail to remove 100% of the germs….

A lab tested eight randomly selected phones from a Chicago office for this article. The phones showed no signs of E. coli or staphylococci bacteria. But all phones showed abnormally high numbers of coliforms, a bacteria indicating fecal contamination.

Read the Full Story on the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444868204578064960544587522.html

Why Should Parents Care About SAR and Cell Phone RF radiation?

As parents, SAR is something that may be of more concern than personal use because kids are using cellular devices more than ever — certainly more than most of us ever did at a young age. SAR limits have been established based on adult use, but kids have smaller bodies and thinner skulls; it’s not a stretch to suppose that they may be more susceptible to any possible negative effects of cell pone radiation, especially when they hold a device right up to their head and use it obsessively. Kids’ usage patterns may be different than adults and they may spend more time in malls or buildings where signal strength isn’t as good (leading to higher radiation output).

Making Cell Phone RF Radiation Exposure Easier to Manage Using Tawkon

The developers of Tawkon took the approach of measurement and warning being a more realistic approach to reducing exposure to cell phone radiation. Let’s face it — unless a major study establishes a definitive link between your iPhone* (or Android) and cancer, there’s little chance you’re going to stop using it. But, if an app can monitor your usage and warn you when your usage is veering into the potentially dangerous zone so that you can take preventative measures — such as switching to speakerphone or using your Bluetooth headset (both measures significantly reduce radiation exposure) — that’s a different story. You don’t need to keep track of all the variables and no-one is in your face, turning off your phone because you’ve exceeded a recommended guideline.

Read Full Article: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/08/twakon/

Tawkon Website: http://tawkon.com/

The Supreme Court of Italy has found something that scientists have been unable to find since the introduction of the cell phone: a link to brain tumors.
cell phones

In a decision widely reported Friday, the justices upheld a lower court ruling that declared an Italian businessman could request worker’s compensation based on a disability he claims was caused by the removal of a tumor linked to cell phone use required by his job.

Full Article: http://www.techhive.com/article/2012767/italian-court-acknowledges-cell-phone-health-hazard.html