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San Francisco Passes Cell Phone Radiation Label Law

by Terrence O'Brien on June 16, 2010 at 02:10 PM

cell phone with radiation label
San Francisco has just passed what is sure to be the first of many over-zealous laws in the U.S. related to cell phone radiation. The city's Twitter-addicted mayor signed into law a measure requiring that retailers post the the SAR (Specific Absorption Rate, or the rate at which the electromagnetic radiation is absorbed by the body) next to each handset in at least 11-point font.

The law isn't the first of its type to be proposed, but previous measures (in California and Maine) have been soundly defeated in the face of understandable skepticism and inconclusive medical studies. A spokesperson for Mayor Gavin Newsom, Tony Winnicker, told the New York Times that the effort was not about discouraging cell phone use, but rather about consumer education. "We think that for the consumer for whom this is an area of concern, it ought to be easier to find," he told the paper.

Of course, one could argue that "educating" the consumer about what constitutes a "safer" phone is actually counterproductive. The scientific and medical communities are pretty evenly split over the dangers of prolonged exposure to cell phones, and every time a study comes out that definitively proves cell phones cause cancer, a study that definitively proves they do not appears a few days later. In light of that uncertain scientific climate, passing such a bull-headed law would only serve to diminish the credibility of the government as a regulatory body. [From: New York Times, via: Engadget]

Tags: cellphone, cellphones, cellphonesandcancer, ElectromagneticRadiation, gavin newsom, GavinNewsom, health, law, radiation, SanFrancisco, sar, top

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