Doctors and Scientists Call For Protective Policy After Historic Court Ruling on Wireless Radiation
August 16, 2021, Washington, D.C.:
In a press conference now posted online, d octors and scientists are calling for action after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's August 13, 2021, decision found the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) failed to explain why it ignored science showing harmful effects from wireless radiation.
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In a landmark ruling in the case brought by Environmental Health Trust against the FCC, the court ruled that the commission acted capriciously, arbitrarily and without evidence when it refused to update its 1996 human exposure limits and failed to explain why it ignored longer term health effects and environmental impacts from 5G and wireless technologies.
The Environmental Health Trust press conference is now available to watch online at this link.
The Court's Decision
The historic ruling in the case of Environmental Health Trust et al. v. the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) found the FCC violated the Administrative Procedure Act because the FCC’s 2019 decision not to update its 1996 exposure limits failed to address impacts of long-term wireless exposure, failed to address unique impacts to children, failed to address the testimony of people injured by wireless radiation, failed to address impacts to wildlife and the environment, and failed to address impacts to the developing brain and reproduction.
The court remanded the issue back to the FCC for reasoned decision making on numerous issues. The court specifically ordered the FCC to do the following:
- "Provide a reasoned explanation for its decision to retain its testing procedures for determining whether cell phones and other portable electronic devices comply with its guidelines."
- "Address the impacts of RF radiation on children, the health implications of long-term exposure to RF radiation, the ubiquity of wireless devices, and other technological developments that have occurred since the Commission last updated its guidelines."
- "Address the impacts of RF radiation on the environment."
- Devra Davis, PhD, MPH, EHT President
- Dr. Hugh Taylor, MD, Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Hospital; president of American Society of Reproductive Medicine
- Edward B. Myers, EHT Attorney
- Theodora Scarato, MSW, EHT Executive Director
- Frank Clegg, CEO of Canadians for Safe Technology and Former President of Microsoft Canada
- Cindy Franklin, Founder of Consumers for Safe Cell Phones
- Elizabeth Barris, The People's Initiative Foundation
- Paul Ben Ishai, PhD, Professor of Physics at Ariel University, Israel
Full biographies are below.
The FCC Failed to Provide a Reasoned Explanation
"The Commission’s failure to provide a reasoned explanation for its determination that exposure to RF radiation at levels below its current limits does not cause negative health effects unrelated to cancer renders inadequate the Commission’s explanation for its failure to discuss the implications of long-term exposure to RF radiation, exposure to RF pulsation or modulation, or the implications of technological developments that have occurred since 1996, including the ubiquity of wireless devices and Wi-Fi, and the emergence of '5G' technology. ... We find the Commission’s order arbitrary and capricious in its complete failure to respond to comments concerning environmental harm caused by RF radiation." — U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, August 13, 2021, Ruling
The Case
In 2013, the FCC asked the question in a formal Inquiry: S hould these 1996 limits be changed? Do children need more protections? Should the FCC change the way companies radiation test cell phones at a distance from the body?
Over the course of almost seven years, the FCC received thousands of responses to its inquiry, all of which were put on the 18-34 record. However in 2019, the FCC issued a decision refusing to change its 1996 exposure limits for wireless radiation. EHT took the FCC to court because the record contained hundreds of peer-reviewed published studies showing harm from wireless radiation at levels that were very low, lower than FCC thresholds. In addition, hundreds of scientists and organizations representing thousands of medical doctors were on the FCC's record recommending public exposure be reduced due to this mounting evidence. The vast majority of submissions said loudly and clearly, “Wireless radiation is harmful. FCC limits do not protect us."
Yet, the FCC ignored most of the science and expert recommendations to update the 1996 safety limits submitted to the record of the 2019 Order Docket 19-226. The FCC then declared that it would retain its existing 1996 wireless RF radiation standards and terminated the inquiry. FCC limits are based on the premise that overheating is the only harm that can be caused by wireless radiation. So long as tissue is not overheated, safety can be assured. The FCC even further asserted — without evidence — that the same approach would prove relevant to the higher frequencies to be used in 5G networks.
The Environmental Health Trust and our scientific advisors had submitted thousands of pages of evidence to the FCC and met numerous times to brief FCC staff. When the FCC clearly ignored the science, we took legal action.
Environmental Health Trust, Consumers for Safe Cell Phones, Elizabeth Barris, and Theodora Scarato’s case was joined by Children's Health Defense, Michelle Hertz, Petra Brokken, Dr. David Carpenter, Dr. Toril Jelter, Dr. Paul Dart, Dr. Ann Lee, Virginia Farver, Jennifer Baran, and Paul Stanley.
Amicus Briefs
The Natural Resources Defense Council filed an amicus brief in the petitioners’ case on the need for environmental review. It was signed onto by mayors and councilmembers from Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, California, and Hawaii.
Telecom attorney Joe Sandri also filed an amicus brief quoting Dr. Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health and former director of the National Toxicology Program (NTP). Birnbaum stated, “Overall, the NTP findings demonstrate the potential for RFR to cause cancer in humans.”
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About Environmental Health Trust
The Environmental Health Trust, a scientific nonprofit, lead petitioner in the case against the FCC, has worked on the issue of wireless radiation for over a decade submitting thousands of pages of evidence to the FCC in the years leading up to the court's decision. EHT scientists testified in 2009 Senate hearings (CSPAN link ) and 2008 Congressional hearing (CSPAN link) on cell phone radiation- the last ones ever held. Following the last hearing, EHT held a conference in Washington DC attended by the FCC with presentations by NIH and the American Cancer Society later followed by the release of a Research Agenda. Although funding for US government research in the area dried up, EHT scientists continued to publish numerous studies on the health effects of non -ionizing electromagnetic radiation and organized numerous national and international scientific conferences on the issue.
EHT sent a letter to President Biden and has long worked on federal accountability on this issue. EHT coordinated a letter to the FDA on their biased 2020 literature review on the science on cell phones and cancer. EHT has sent letters to the National Park Service, and governments of France, Bermuda, India, Guernsey, British Columbia Trustee’s and more. EHT’s resources include a database on international policy action, letters by scientists on 5G, practical steps to reduce exposure, printable resources on safe technology, a video library, toolkits on Wi-Fi in School and 5G. EHT will be sending an updated letter to President Biden with the court ruling and implications.
Biographies of EHT's Press Conference Panelists
Devra Davis, PhD, MPH, Co-founder and President of Environmental Health Trust
Devra Davis, PhD, MPH, was a founding director of the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the U.S. National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and has worked on numerous environmental exposures, from chemicals to lead to air pollution. Among the NAS reports she directed were those advising that tobacco smoke be removed from airplanes and the environments of young children.
She was also an appointee of President Bill Clinton to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, former senior advisor to the assistant secretary for health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and a member of the team of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientists who were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with the Honorable Al Gore in 2007.
Dr. Hugh S. Taylor, MD, Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Hospital; president of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine
Dr. Hugh S. Taylor, MD, has served as president of the Society for Reproductive Investigation and will be president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in 2021. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Taylor is the Anita O'Keeffe Young Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine and Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Dr. Taylor's research on prenatal exposure to cell phone radiation was published in Scientific Reports. Dr. Taylor is also Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale University. Dr. Taylor received his undergraduate training at Yale University, his medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. he did his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Yale and his postdoctoral training included a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility as well as a fellowship in molecular biology, both at Yale. Dr. Taylor is a board certified specialist in obstetrics and gynecology and in reproductive endocrinology. He is a recipient of 10 National Institutes of Health research grants and directs The Yale Center for Reproductive Biology. Dr. Taylor has published more than 400 articles in leading medical journals.
Edward B. Myers, Attorney for Environmental Health Trust in EHT et al. v. FCC
Edward B. Myers has practiced law over 40 years representing government, trade associations, and private clients in complex regulatory matters involving energy, telecommunications, and the environment. In 2018, Mr. Myers worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in a successful challenge to an order of the FCC that had sought to eliminate any environmental review of 5G cell towers and transmitters. The NRDC filed an amicus brief in the EHT case. Mr. Myers is a graduate of Gettysburg College and the University of Notre Dame Law School.
Frank Clegg, CEO of Canadians for Safe Technology and Former President of Microsoft Canada
CEO of Canadians for Safe Technology and former president of Microsoft Canada,
Frank Clegg founded Canadians for Safe Technology (C4ST), a national, not-for-profit, volunteer-based coalition of parents, citizens, and experts. C4ST’s mission is to educate and inform Canadians and policymakers about the dangers of the exposures to unsafe levels of radiation from technology; and to work with all levels of government to create healthier communities for children and families.
Mr. Clegg was the president of Microsoft Canada from 1991-1996 and was re-appointed to that post from 2000-2005. He has played a leadership role in the country’s technology sector and in the broader Canadian community for many years. Mr. Clegg holds an Honors Degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.
Paul Ben Ishai, PhD, Professor of Physics at Ariel University, Israel
Paul Ben Ishai PhD is currently a senior lecturer with the Department of Physics, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel, and the head of the laboratory of Terahertz Dielectric Spectroscopy. He was the director of the Hebrew University's Center for Electromagnetic Research and Characterization, Department of Applied Physics and has published over 50 articles including several papers on 5G frequencies and the skin. Until 2016, he was involved with the laboratory of Professor Yuri Feldman, concentrating on dielectric research. His research interests include soft condensed matter physics, glassy dynamics, biophysics, sub-terahertz spectroscopy, and dielectric spectroscopy. He currently holds three patents in these fields. He received the PhD in applied physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Theodora Scarato, MSW, EHT Executive Director
Theodora Scarato directs EHT programs and coordinates scientific programs in the United States and internationally with EHTs senior science advisors. Scarato is lead policy analyst and researcher for the EHT database on international actions — the most comprehensive collection of information on policy actions on cell phones and wireless.
Scarato has led efforts for federal accountability. Her Freedom of Information requests found the CDC hired an industry consultant for website rewrites. Her communications with the EPA were submitted as key evidence in the Natural Resources Defense Council amicus brief submitted in the FCC lawsuit and provide critical information for legislators. She also coordinated the scientific review of the Oregon Health Department Report on wireless radiation, which resulted in a planned September 2021 hearing in the Oregon Senate to investigate the issue.
She has championed efforts for safe technology in schools and her efforts led to the Maryland Council on Children's Environmental Health to issue recommendations to reduce children’s Wi-Fi exposure. She has coordinated efforts to hold the WHO EMF Project accountable for its online factsheets that downplay the science. The letter by scientists to the WHO EMF Project remains unanswered to this day.
Scarato co-authored a landmark paper on why and how to reduce radiofrequency wireless in buildings and has presented at the National Institutes of Health, the New Hampshire State 5G Commission, the San Francisco Teachers Union, the University of California San Francisco, and the American Federation of Teachers.
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