Maine Considers Warnings for Cell Phones

(CBS)  In the summer of 2008, 58-year-old Alan Marks was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

"They took out a golf-ball-sized tumor," Marks said. "I don't think there's any question it's going to come back."

A real estate developer in California, Marks talked on his cell phone about an hour a day for 23 years.

"There's no question what caused it," Marks said of his cancer. "It was my cell phone."

Twenty years ago, there were only about two-and-a-half million cell phone subscribers in the U.S. Today, that number is a quarter billion, and each subscriber spends close to three hours a week on their cell phone, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod.

Marks's condition is why his wife Ellen Marks traveled cross-country this week to appear before Maine state legislators and urge them to approve a bill requiring a warning label on all cell phones sold in the Pine Tree State.

"I'm going to watch my husband die from this," Ellen Marks said.

Democratic state Rep. Andrea Boland is behind the bill, which would require phones to carry a label saying, "Warning: this device emits electromagnetic radiation, exposure to which may cause brain cancer."

It's common sense to her: we all walk around pressing these radiation-emitting devices to our heads.

"The cell phones have never been proven safe," Boland said, "and that's the obligation of the manufacturers."

Warning labels on cell phones would put the Maine legislature ahead of the National Cancer Institute on the issue. The center says studies have not shown any consistent link between cell phone use and cancer but that more research is needed before any firm conclusions can be drawn.

The Federal Communications Commission, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the American Cancer Society all have similar positions.

State health officials want more than just Boland's "common sense." They want conclusive evidence.

"You go back 20 or 30 years, there's no increase in these cancer rates during this time," said Dr. Dora Anne Mills of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Radiation produced by cell phones is stronger than an FM radio signal but just one-billionth the intensity of an X-ray and considered to be a completely different type of radiation altogether.

If there's no threat, advocates for a warning want to know why some manufacturers advise users to keep the phones an inch away from the body unless carried in an approved holster.

"People don't read those tiny little print labels," said Dr. Devra Davis of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City and founder of Environmental Health Trust. "That's why I think it's a good idea to put the warning label on the phone so you'll think about it when you use the phone."

Still, legislators in Maine just haven't seen enough proof. A skeptical health committee pushed the bill to the House floor but recommended it not pass.

"The research is not there," said one Maine legislator. "I'm sorry."

A federal study examining possible links between cell phones and cancer is due out in the next few years. Until then, people deciding how much to use their cell phones will be left to their own devices.

[blackkeysbob]

For all the people who have commented here that there is no "science or real proof" that cell phone radiation causes cancer or serious harm to the brain, I suggest they read "Nerve Cell Damage in Mammalian Brain after Exposure to Microwaves from GSM Mobile Phones." This study by Leif Salford et al appeared in the January 29, 2003 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, a very highly-regarded peer-reviewed scientific journal, and is viewable in its entirety on the Internet. The link to the study is below.
http://www.elektrosmognews.de/salfordjan2003.pdf

[Spirit-76]

For you Dumb and Dumber: Try sticking your head in a Microwave for 5 minutes then come back and tell me that the radiation didn't hurt you. No tumors but a melted brain...

[endurorob_5]

These people that think cells phones cause brain cancer remind me of the nuts that insist immunizations cause autism. They have no proof at all but still want to force this unreasonable belief on the rest of us.

[ajvw]

I'm sure they have nothing else to worry about

[olskooltoo]

Want to bet the old dial phones put out as much

[RoboBlogger]

It's better to be safe than sorry. C.Y.A. for later litigations.

[WBru]

The reason the science isn't totally clear is because the EPA's research group on microwaves had their budget set to zero in 1996 by the Senate after they said they would start taking input on new microwave exposure limits. Same year that John McCain (and his pretty lobbyist friend) drafted the 1996 Telecommunications Act that exempts cell towers from environmental impact assessment (despite all the birds they kill) and bars local governments from regulating them based on health effects, proven or not. Read lots more in the GQ article "Warning your cell phone may be hazardous to your health".

[pensacola8-2009]

Cell Phones are not the cancer causing sources that some purported them to be. I have used a cell phone since 1990. I average 2000 minutes a month. I did have an inoperable benign tumor in my own head that was detected on an MRI in 1984. After using a cell phone for over 8 years, I had headaches and requested another MRI and found the tumor was gone completely. The cause of my headaches was traced to night shift work during the summer that caused me to sleep while my home air conditioning was blowing dry air on my face during the daytime and desiccating my sinuses. Removing the vent and rotating it 180 degrees and reinstalling it redirected air away from my face and the problem was solved. I have used cell phones for 20 years now and never experience a medical malady over it. There is no explanation for the vanishing tumor, but I never made it a habit of looking a gift horse in the mouth.

[barbaram99]

I read this in the Bangor Daily News when they had wrote about this same thing..I am from Maine but live in Seattle. They talked about them lablea. People use them. I have no idea if they cause cancer or not..Ye can't find a payphone and most use the cell..

[start99]

Huh? Why not in all the states and countries...we are human hello!! Whats so special about Piney treez? Why not make a detector of cell phone addiction. That goes for texting while driving...good idea?