- Class action lawsuits against cell phone makers over
radiation emissions will be able to go forward, after the U.S. Supreme
Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by the companies.
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- The high court rejected hearing an appeal by companies
like Nokia and Cingular Wireless challenging a decision by a U.S. appeals
court that reinstated the lawsuits that argued manufacturers knew about
and hid the risks of radiation emissions wireless phones posed to users.
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- Wireless phones are radios that emit frequency radiation,
and in the United States the Federal Communications Commission must approve
any device that sends out such radiation.
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- Exposure to high levels of radiation can cause adverse
health effects, but it is less clear the impact on a wireless phone user
who is exposed to low levels of radiation when a phone is held to an ear
directly.
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- Health advocates have expressed concerns about radiation
causing problems ranging from headaches to tumors. But the wireless industry
has pointed to U.S. government statements that scientific evidence so far
has not shown any health problems associated with wireless phone use.
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- Five class action lawsuits were filed in state courts
seeking damages, including money for wireless users to buy a headset or
reimburse those who had already had purchased one.
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- A U.S. district court judge dismissed the five lawsuits
on the grounds that state regulation of wireless phone emissions was pre-empted
by the FCC, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit overturned
that decision and reinstated the cases.
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- The wireless industry is worried about being required
to adhere to numerous different emissions requirements imposed by states,
something the service providers and manufacturers argue would wreak havoc
on the industry and consumers.
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- "This court's intervention is necessary to prevent
the balkanisation of network standards...which will, if uncorrected, undermine
the ability of consumers to use an FCC-approved wireless telephone in every
state of the union," they said in their appeal to the high court.
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- Other companies that joined in the appeal include Motorola
and Qualcomm. Cingular Wireless is a joint venture of BellSouth and SBC
Communications
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- As a result of the high court's action, one lawsuit will
go forward in federal court while the four other lawsuits will go forward
in state court.
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