A new version of a bill that could force cell phone companies to place warnings on their products is being considered by the California Senate in the United States. The bill, which has been proposed by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) received its first reading by the Rules Committee of the State Senate this week and will now pass on to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee.
Leno says that he hopes the bill, if successful, will wake people up to the potential dangers of both new and old cell phones and help to reduce exposure to radio frequency (RF) energy. “There’s ever mounting evidence of a likely relationship between long term cell phone use and health risks when you put the phone next to your brain,” Leno believes. “Even cell phone user manuals suggest that you don’t keep your phone on or next to your ear.” Leno wants to change the warnings that are already found in the user manuals of the majority of cell phones to make them clearer.
This bill is not the first time Leno has attempted to weigh in on the issue, with a different variation on the same bill having been defeated last year following a campaign by the CTIA, the lobbying arm of the wireless communications industry. “The industry has been fighting our efforts, but they’re making a mistake,” Leno notes. “The more they fight, the more I wonder what they’re not telling us.” As he points out, “We live in an age of disclosure… why not disclose this?”