Cellphone radiation posting law passed in U.S.

San Francisco city council passed a requirement Tuesday that would force retailers to post radiation levels of for-sale cellphones, the first such requirement in the United States.

San Francisco's board of supervisors the elected arm of that city's government approved a municipal changethat wouldrequire stores to post prominently the level of radioactive particles emitted by portable devices soldat their locations.

The requirement which is expected to be signed into law by Mayor Gavin Newsom within the next 10 days arose from concerns about the health effects of extensive cellphone use among consumers.

Law will 'mislead': U.S. cell industry

The mayor's office called the new law a win for the consumers' right to know.

It willmean thatthe information is out there, said Tony Winnicker, a spokesman for Newsom, "if youre willing to look hard enough."

The new municipal ordinance will make retailers list a device's specific absorption rate (SAR), or the rate at which these potentially harmful rays are taken in by skin cells.

That information will just confuse customers, the U.S. cell industry argued.

"(T)he ordinance will potentially mislead consumers with point of sale requirements suggesting that some phones are 'safer' than others," said John Walls, vice-president of public affairs for the CTIA, the associationthat representsthe wireless phones sector in the United States.

Walls noted thatall devices on the market already must comply with Federal Communications Commission safety standards.

Researchers call for more studies

Many groups have maintained that extensive use of cellphones will increase the risk to a person's health.

But at least onerecent report examining the link between cellphone radiation and cancer failed to findhard evidence that extensive portable calling will boost a caller's risk of life-threatening diseases.

In May, an extensive United Nations studyof cell usagein 13 countriesdid notuncover a definitive link betweenportable device radiation and varioustypes of cancer.

"An increased risk of brain cancer is not established from the data. However further investigation of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk is merited," said Christopher Wild, director of the study.

Children and cell towers

Another study, this one British, waspublished in June. Itsuggested thatBritish children whose mothers lived close to cellphone towers while pregnant did not face a higher risk of cancer than the offspring of expectant mothers who did not residenear such installations.

The researchers examined the health of boys and girls aged four between 1999 and 2001.

The report wasjointly funded by the Britishgovernment and the British mobile telecommunications industry.