Mobile phone companies are fighting back after San Francisco passed new requirements for cellphone retailers to warn customers about limiting their exposure to radiation.Among the requirements that kick in this week, stores will have to display “informational posters” explaining that cellphones emit radio frequency energy that’s absorbed by the head and body.
The posters will also have to explain how to reduce that exposure risk — by doing things like using a headset or speaker phone, texting instead of talking, and limiting use by children.
It’s the first cellphone ordinance in the United States, created after numerous studies examined by the International Agency for Research on Cancer led the organization to classify cellphones as possibly carcinogenic to humans.
Leading epidemiologists who have studied how cellphone radiation is absorbed by the body have also recommended that the public be warned of potential risks, particularly with children.
On Tuesday, Health Canada said that while “at present, the scientific evidence is far from conclusive and more research is required” about any cellphone links to cancer, it issued warnings about cellphone usage.
The new regulations are somewhat watered down, after earlier proposed regulations were stalled due to a different lawsuit by the cellphone industry. Phone companies argued that phones should not have to display their SAR rating — the Specific Absorption Rate of radiation emitted by each phone.