{"id":17144,"date":"2020-02-19T11:36:09","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T18:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=17144"},"modified":"2020-02-19T11:37:42","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T18:37:42","slug":"eht-takes-historic-legal-action-against-the-fcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=17144","title":{"rendered":"EHT Takes Historic Legal Action Against The FCC"},"content":{"rendered":"
Appeal filed after the FCC refuses to update their 24 year old wireless radiation limits.\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n
\n
\n

Washington, DC \u2013 A group of scientists, consumer health nonprofits, and citizens filed a historic legal action against the FCC for its refusal<\/a> to update its 24-year-old cell phone and wireless radiofrequency (RF) radiation guidelines. The legal petition contends the FCC\u2019s action<\/a> is \u201carbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion\u201d and \u201cnot in accordance with the law\u201d as the FCC has violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to adequately review the hundreds of relevant scientific submissions finding harmful effects from wireless technologies.<\/p>\n

The appeal was filed in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on January 31, 2020 by the Law Office of Edward B. Myers on behalf of Environmental Health Trust, Consumers for Safe Cell Phones, and several individuals. Myers was part of the recent winning litigation against the FCC<\/a> (along with the Natural Resources Defense Council and 19 tribal groups) which overturned FCC regulations that would have exempted small cell facilities from environmental review and compliance under the National Environmental Policy Act.<\/p>\n

The legal action was featured in Law and Crime\u2019s article\u00a0 \u201cScientists Sue FCC for Dismissing Studies Linking Cell Phone Radiation to Cancer<\/a>\u201d where attorney Edward B. Myers stated, \u201cThe FCC\u2019s order terminated an inquiry into the adequacy of existing health and safety standards for radiofrequency radiation from wireless devices and facilities, including cell phones and cell phone towers and transmitters,\u201d he said. \u201cThe existing regulations were promulgated in 1996 based on scientific data from 1992 and the FCC had commenced the inquiry in 2013 after the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report finding that the existing standards may be based on outdated science and may need to be updated.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2012, the General Accountability Office issued a report<\/a> recommending wireless radiation regulations be re-assessed leading to the FCC opening Docket 13-84<\/a> \u00a0in 2013 asking for public comment on whether a review was needed. The FCC accepted submissions into the docket for years and took no action until December 4, 2019 when they decided<\/a> that no review needed to be done and that wireless radiation limits were protective.<\/p>\n

EHT\u2019s legal action challenges the December 4, 2020 FCC decision.Scientific submissions the petitioners contend were \u201cignored\u201d in the FCC Docket included research documenting harm to wildlife<\/a> and bees<\/a>, the recent National Toxicology Program (NTP) study<\/a> that confirmed cell phone radiation causes cancer and DNA damage,<\/a> the Ramazzini Institute study<\/a>, replicated studies<\/a> finding tumor promotion, oxidative stress,<\/a> reproductive damage,<\/a> brain damage,<\/a> and genotoxicity<\/a>, cell tower research<\/a>, and human studies finding increased brain tumors<\/a>, headaches and memory damage<\/a>. Submissions to the FCC indicate that childhood and pregnancy are times of unique vulnerability and that children are not only more exposed<\/a> to cell phone radiation but also more vulnerable to its impact due to their developing brains. However the FCC stated<\/a>, \u201cWe further decline to revisit our RF exposure policy as it pertains to children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FCC decision flies in the face of mounting scientific evidence demonstrating harm from RF radiation and runs counter to the science-based decisions of other governments that have devoted major resources to evaluating new evidence on the issue and have taken steps to curtail exposures as a result of their findings,\u201d stated Devra Davis, PhD, MPH, President of Environmental Health Trust<\/a>, a scientific think-tank that has long pushed for stricter regulations on RF emissions from cell phones and other wireless equipment. Dr. Davis testified in the 2009 US Senate hearing<\/a> on the health effects of cell phone radiation, and EHT\u2019s Chairman Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, founder of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, testified in the 2008 House hearings<\/a> on cell phone radiation.<\/p>\n

The litigation was prompted by an FCC Order, released on December 4, 2019, \u201cFCC Maintains Current RF Exposure Safety Standards\u201d<\/a>, in which:<\/p>\n