Cell Phone Radiation Lawsuit: Supreme Court Denies Appeal
October 31st, 2005 | by amarfresh |Cell phone manufacturers and carriers are looking like big tobacco these days. The US Supreme court denied hearing appeals from the likes of Motorola, Nokia and Cingular with regard to recently reinstated lawsuits alleging that cell phone manufacturers knew of and hid the risks associated with cellphone radiation emissions.
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.
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.
This reeks of the tobacco industry coverup regarding the effects of smoking and nicotine. While I don’t think that the cell phone manufacturers and carriers are exposed at the same scale; any negative rulings (affirming cell phone radiation) will certainly spawn numerous class-action lawsuits.
And as always, the only winners in these battles will be the lawyers involved in the costly litigation.