Maine news, sports, weather from Waterville Morning Sentinel

March 10

Phone hazard bill in peril

By Ethan Wilensky-Lanford ewlanford@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

BY ETHAN WILENSKY-LANFORD

Staff Writer

The Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee split on a bill to require cell phones to carry warnings they may cause brain cancer.

Eight members of the committee voted down the bill, L.D. 1706. They now intend to write a letter directing the Maine Centers for Disease Control to provide links on its Web site to federal statements about cell phone safety.

Five members voted for an amendment to ask the cell phone industry to educate users about the possible risks of their products. Those five members also want to send letters to federal agencies asking for more research on the safety of cell phones.

The Senate chairman of the committee, Joseph Brannigan, D-Portland, took the unusual step of leading the call for this minority report, which will take the bill to the House and Senate floors for debate.

Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Centers for Disease Control, told the committee that although there was uncertainty about the safety of cell phones and research should continue, there was no proof of risk.

"You would expect to see some increase in cancer rates when 80 percent of the population is using this product," she said. "If you are going to put a warning on cell phones, I would suggest you put a warning: Do not use while driving."

An industry spokesman, K. Dane Snowden of the wireless association CTIA, said their products were regulated and there was no proof of danger.

"We can't disprove a negative," he said. "We're concerned about putting a warning label on a product that could actually mislead consumers."

Rep. Sarah Lewin, R-Eliot, said not allowing children to use cell phones was a matter of common sense and personal responsibility.

"If we're worried about children, why in heaven's name are we giving them these things that may cause them brain cancer?" she said. "For me, there is absolutely no merit to this bill."

Her sentiment was echoed by Rep. James Campbell Sr., U-Newfield. He took offense to advocates coming from California to support the legislation.

"My advice is to go back to California, and get it passed there, and then come back up to us," he told Ellie Marks of San Francisco, who has testified that her husband, Alan Marks, is dying from a brain tumor his doctor said resulted him using his cell phone for an hour each day since 1987.

Some members of the committee were more conflicted.

Rep. Meredith Strang-Burgess, a breast cancer survivor, said she has known people she believes died because of their cell phones, and there must be concern if federal regulators require cell phone makers to put possible risks associated with radiation in their instruction manuals.

"Well, they're not putting it in their manuals because they are nice guys," she said. "They are putting it in there because they are told to by somebody."

Strang-Burgess also voiced distrust of federal regulators to protect consumers, citing the dangers Agent Orange posed for servicemen, and personal regulation issues she's been involved in with Monsanto.

"I have a general distrust for the FDA, FCC and all of these types of things," she said.

She spearheaded the effort to ask the industry to better educate consumers about the uncertainty of cell phone safety, which she called a "shot across their bow."

"I always would rather have industry regulate themselves rather than create a law," she said. "The problem is, I know too much. I'm very conflicted here."

Although unhappy with the committee vote, Rep. Andrea Boland, the bill's sponsor, said she saw progress nonetheless.

"I think what it shows is a recognition of the problem, and that there is a way to mitigate it," she said. "People don't want to scare people, (but) I maintain that it's a lot less scary to look at a little warning saying this may cause brain cancer than it is to look at an MRI of your kid showing a brain tumor."

The bill will be debated on the House floor, perhaps as soon as next week.

Ethan Wilensky-Lanford - 620-7016

ewlanford@mainetoday.com