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Maine to Label Cell Phones With Graphic Cancer Warnings?

by Terrence O'Brien on December 21, 2009 at 01:40 PM

Maine Legislator Wants Cell Phones to Carry Cancer WarningsCell phones cause cancer, don't cause cancer, might cause cancer, who knows? Well, Maine State Legislator Andrea Boland at least claims to know. She plans to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would require phones to carry warnings saying that they can cause brain cancer. Apparently unconcerned with things like scientific consensus, Boland wants Maine to become the first in the nation to require such warnings.

Boland told the AP that Maine's roughly 950,000 cell phone users "do not know what the risks are." Of course, scientists aren't positive what risks, if any, are posed by mobile use. While some studies have suggested a possible link between certain types of cancer and radiation emitted by cellular devices, most have stopped shy of inferring direct causation. Even the eternally hyperbolic World Health Organization has pulled short of saying that cell phones result in brain cancer.

This news comes hot on the heels of San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom's announcement that he wants phone manufacturers to disclose the levels of radiation emitted by mobile phones. But Boland's bill would take things one alarmist step further, requiring phones to be plastered with non-removable labels that bear the word "warning" in large red letters and a graphic of a child's brain.

The FCC maintains that cell phones sold in the U.S. are safe, and even The National Cancer Institute has said studies have produced inconsistent results. Still, Boland currently uses an add-on speaker to keep her own cell away from her head, and leaves it off unless she's expecting a call. [From: AP, via: Engadget]

Tags: andrea boland, AndreaBoland, cancer, cell phones, cell phones and cancer, CellPhones, CellPhonesAndCancer, health, maine, radiation, top, World health organization, WorldHealthOrganization

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