Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 17, 1993 TAG: 9307170048
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Still, said Thomas E. Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, the industry has pledged to spend $15 million to $25 million in the next three to five years for studying the issue.
The research has involved looking at thousands of studies bearing on the relationship of electromagnetic radiation on human health, said George L. Carlo, an epidemiologist who heads the study.
"When we have identified what's known, we can then identify what is unknown," he told a news conference.
"None of these studies suggest any relationship between cellular phones and cancer," Wheeler said. The findings will be reviewed by a peer group and research will begin in the fall into any areas where questions remain.
"It is important to emphasize that this is a step-by-step scientific process," Wheeler said.
The fast-growing cellular phone industry was jolted in January when a St. Petersburg, Fla., man, David Reynard, appeared on the "Larry King Live" television show and claimed his wife had contracted brain cancer from a portable telephone. She died last year and Reynard filed suit against a manufacturer and a carrier. The action is pending.
Three weeks ago, a judge in Cook County, Ill., ruled that plaintiffs in another suit had failed to prove the telephones were a health hazard. He also denied the plaintiffs' attempt to make the suit a class action on behalf of all cellular phone users.
Those two suits are the only ones that have been filed in the last six months, Wheeler said.
by CNB