Friday, June 23, 2000 Cellphone hysteric Researcher George Carlo failed to come up with any evidence cellphones were dangerous. But some health scares never die Steven J. Milloy National Post George Carlo spent US$25-million and the better part of the 1990s researching the potential hazards of cellphone use as head of the cellphone industry's Washington-based Wireless Technology Research project. His failure to produce any evidence of danger resulted in the industry shutting the project down. But Mr. Carlo hasn't given up. Instead, he founded a new organization and, aided by a superlawyer, has switched sides to crusade against the wireless industry that once funded his research. A good health scare, apparently, never dies from lack of evidence. The WTR project came about after a lawsuit was filed against cellphone manufacturer NEC on behalf of a cellphone user who had died of brain cancer in 1992. The lawsuit didn't get much attention until it was spotlighted on the Larry King Live television show. A media and political circus resulted. At first the cellphone industry announced it would spend US$1-million to research potential health effects from cellphone use. As public concern mounted, the industry raised the research budget to US$25-million and hired Mr. Carlo, then a Washington, D.C.-based consultant. "We have turned over the research to the [WTR] in order to build a process with respected scientists and a peer review group that will assure that the conclusions have credibility," said Ron Nessen, a cellphone industry spokesman, in May, 1993. "We are determined that the research process be based entirely on good scientific procedures." But Mr. Carlo disappointed the industry -- to say the least. His research program produced little of lasting scientific value, especially compared to its funding level. The industry is not even sure exactly how Mr. Carlo spent all the money. Worse, his leadership of the program exposed the industry to criticism that the research program was a public relations stunt. Nevertheless, the original cellphone lawsuit and other copycat suits were eventually dismissed for lack of evidence. Over the last 50 years or so, much research has been conducted with radio frequency (RF) radiation -- the type of radiation that cellphone technology uses. Scientists know what levels are safe and standards for exposure have been developed. The cellphone industry's US$25-million program was much more than was justified by allegations that weren't even sufficiently plausible to make it to a jury. Since Mr. Carlo's research program ended, two major government reports on the safety of cellphones have been released. A May, 1999, report commissioned by Health Canada concluded generally that, under normal use, no evidence exists that RF fields pose a health risk, and specifically that Health Canada's Safety Code 6 -- the guideline for devices that produce RF fields -- adequately protects workers and the general public from whole-body heating or "thermal" effects. The panel also found that cellphone transmission sites emit RF fields at sufficiently low intensity that biological or adverse health effects are not anticipated. It noted that workers may experience higher RF exposures. But adverse health effects were not identified and industry work-practice guidelines limit worker exposure. Britain's Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones issued a report in April of this year stating, "the balance of evidence to date suggests that exposures to RF radiation below guidelines recommended for the U.K. and those recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection do not cause adverse health effects to the general population. It understands that all mobile phones presently marketed in the U.K. comply with these guidelines. Exposures from [cellphone sites] are very much below those from mobile phones." But despite the dismissal of the lawsuits and expert reports concluding that cellphones are safe, the controversy isn't going away -- thanks in large part to Mr. Carlo and his new partner, Baltimore Orioles owner and "superlawyer" Peter Angelos. After the cellphone industry pulled the plug on Mr. Carlo's research program, Mr. Carlo turned from cellphone researcher to cellphone hysteric. He began giving media interviews in which he raised questions about the safety of cellphones. He promoted a new and unpublished study that, according to Mr. Carlo, prevented the industry from honestly claiming the technology safe. Joshua Muscat, the study's principal investigator, says that Mr. Carlo has distorted the study's results. "The results are essentially negative," he said. Mr. Muscat also called a "non-issue" the idea that cancer risk is increased on the side of the head where the phone is held. This has been a constant theme of Mr. Carlo's in media interviews. Mr. Carlo has little credibility, even with anti-cellphone activists. Louis Slesin, the publisher of Microwave News, the leading newsletter spotlighting cellphone concerns, noted that: "Just as [the industry stops funding him], Mr. Carlo has started to say there might be something to cellphone worries after all. Pardon our cynicism, but we've wondered if the two might be connected." Coming to Mr. Carlo's rescue is Mr. Angelos, a trial lawyer who has amassed a personal fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars built by wringing billion-dollar settlements from the asbestos and tobacco industries. Hoping Mr. Carlo's "research" will be the basis for future class-action lawsuits, Mr. Angelos offered to fund him directly. Mr. Carlo claims he turned down this offer as it might taint his research. But he did accept Mr. Angelos's help in raising money from "outside" sources. Last April, Mr. Carlo unveiled the Radiation Protection Project, a new research program that would supposedly combine epidemiology, laboratory research and passive surveillance of the 90 million wireless phone subscribers in the United States. He plans to use TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and other media to solicit information from consumers who believe they have been injured by mobile phone radiation. Mr. Carlo says the confidential responses may trigger follow-ups, such as on-site interviews by scientific investigators. Ultimately, this data may be used in personal injury lawsuits against the industry orchestrated by Mr. Angelos. But Mr. Angelos apparently can't wait for Mr. Carlo's research. Mr. Angelos, who recently said he will decide by early summer whether to file a class-action lawsuit against the cellphone industry, told the wireless communications trade publication RCR News that he has reviewed scientific literature, talked to people who claim mobile phones caused their brain cancer and met with scientists about the state of science on health implications of mobile-phone radio-frequency radiation. "We have compiled a multitude of information and probably the next 60 days will get us to the point where we can say we have a case or not," said Mr. Angelos. Lest anyone think that Mr. Angelos plans on deciding not to sue, he also told RCR News, "I believe the evidence is mounting that there appears to be some connection between mobile phones and health risks ... We think there's a lot there." To date, no scientist, government expert panel or trial judge has thought anything was there. Steven Milloy is a biostatistician, lawyer, publisher of Junkscience.com and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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