September, 03 2013, 03:12pm EDT
Health, Consumer Groups Call for New Cell Phone Radiation Standards
WASHINGTON
Citing the soaring number of wireless devices in the hands of children, long-standing flaws in federal cell phone radiation standards and new science raising questions about cell phone safety, 12 public health and consumer groups are calling on the government to revamp the standards to better protect both young people and adults.
"Nearly 80 percent of teenagers and a growing number of younger children in the United States now have a cell phone, talking and texting throughout the day while being exposed to potentially unsafe levels of radiation," said Heather White, executive director of Environmental Working Group. "The new reality of who is using these devices and the amount of time they spend with them demand that the federal government do its level best to make sure they are as safe as possible."
In a letter to the heads of the Federal Communications Commission and the Food and Drug Administration, executives of the 12 public interest groups wrote:
Today, there are 10 times as many cell phone subscribers in the U.S. as there were in 1997. Fully 78 percent of teenagers own a cell phone... As use of electronic devices has grown, concern about potential serious long-term health effects of cell phone radiation has risen sharply. There are now numerous scientific studies showing potential links between cell phone radiation and cancer, declines in sperm count and other health problems. While more research and evidence is needed, we know enough to act protectively and proactively. Caring for our children - for future generations - is common sense.
The organizations are asking the FCC to: modernize its protocols for wireless devices in order to adequately protect children's health; update its radiation standards to reflect actual patterns of use; and provide consumers with information about potential radiation exposure from specific phones and networks, including at the point of sale.
Signers of the letter include: Black Women for Wellness, Breast Cancer Action, Breast Cancer Fund, Center for Environmental Health, Consumer Federation of California, Center for Health, Environment & Justice, Empire State Consumers Project, Environmental Working Group, Healthy Child Healthy World, Product Policy Institute, Science and Environmental Health Network, and Teens Turning Green. EWG also submitted extensive technical comments to the FCC detailing its concerns.
The FCC has not updated its cell phone standards since it first published them in 1996, at a time when cell phone use among young people was rare, smartphones did not exist, cell phone cases were virtually unheard of and the agency assumed that most people would carry their phones in holsters on their belts.
The outdated FCC standards do not take into account the fact that children's brains absorb radio frequency energy differently than adult brains and provide consumers with little guidance as to which phones and wireless networks are likely to expose them to the least radiation. Consumers who hold their phones directly against their bodies or use smartphone cases may exceed FCC safety limits.
Last year, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report called on the FCC to update its cell phone radiation exposure and testing guidelines. It said the current standards "may not reflect the latest research" and "may not identify maximum exposure [to radiation] in all possible usage conditions." It also noted that the agency does not test the use of phones held against the body, which "could result in [radio frequency] energy exposure higher than the FCC limit."
The evidence on possible health risks from cell phone use is not definitive, but there are now numerous scientific studies pointing to potential links between cell phone radiation and cancer, declines in sperm counts and other health problems. These findings have raised additional concerns about whether the current FCC standards are sufficiently protective.
The FCC's public comment period on its plan to update its cell phone radiation standards closes on Tuesday, Sept. 3, and the agency is expected to indicate by the end of the year how it may move forward to revise to the standards.
The Environmental Working Group is a community 30 million strong, working to protect our environmental health by changing industry standards.
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'McCarthyism Is Alive and Well': Google Fires 28 for Protesting Israel Contract
"These mass, illegal firings will not stop us," said organizers. "Make no mistake, we will continue organizing until the company drops Project Nimbus and stops powering this genocide."
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The peace coalition No Tech for Apartheid accused Google of a "flagrant act of retaliation" late Wednesday night as the Silicon Valley giant announced it had fired 28 workers over protests against its cloud services contract with the Israeli government.
The firings came after Google organizers held two 10-hour sit-ins at the company's offices in Sunnyvale, California and New York City, demanding the termination of Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract under which Google and Amazon provide cloud infrastructure and data services for Israel—without any oversight regarding whether the Israel Defense Forces uses the services in its occupation of Palestinian territories and bombardment of Gaza.
Workers have denounced Project Nimbus since it was announced in 2021, but Israel's killing of at least 33,970 Palestinians in Gaza since October and its intentional starvation of civilians led employees to escalate their protests.
No Tech for Apartheid said in a statement that Google officials called the police to both offices to arrest nine protesters—dubbed the Nimbus Nine—on Tuesday morning, before utilizing "a dragnet of in-office surveillance" to fire nearly two dozen other employees on Wednesday.
"They punished all of the workers they could associate with this action in wholesale firings," said the coalition, which includes Jewish Voice for Peace and MPower Change, a Muslim-led anti-war group.
Google accused the workers of "bullying," "harassment," defacing property, and physically impeding other employees—allegations No Tech for Apartheid rejected as it noted organizers "have yet to hear from a single executive about" their concerns over Google's collaboration with Israel.
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The organizers staged the sit-ins on the heels of reporting in Time magazine about new negotiations between Google and the Israeli government regarding further potential tech contracts.
Kate J. Sim, a child safety policy adviser at Google who said she was among those fired this week, said the terminations show "how terrified [executives] are of worker power."
Google employees have a history of harnessing worker power to change policies at the company. In 2018, Google terminated a deal with the U.S. Defense Department to develop drone and artificial intelligence (AI) technology through a contract called Project Maven. The decision followed the resignations of several employees and the condemnation of thousands of workers.
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The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
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Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
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Leaked cables obtained by The Intercept show U.S. pressure on Security Council members including Malta—which currently presides over the body—and Ecuador.
While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
"We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of 'Palestine' as a U.N. member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks," the document advises.
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As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
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