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AMY GOODMAN: Talk about what you have found, what we do know about cellphone safety, and how dangerous are cellphones.

MARK HERTSGAARD: Let me emphasize, Amy, our piece is not saying that cellphones are safe or are not safe. Our piece is an investigative exposé showing you how the cellular industry has worked for 25 years behind the scenes to convince you that cellphones are safe, when, in fact, if you look at the independently funded science, the picture is a lot more mixed than that. And as you mentioned, there’s that smoking gun memo—letter, I should say—from George Carlo in 1999 telling the CEOs of all these big companies, “Look, this stuff is raising serious questions, especially about kids and cancer and genetic damage.”

And I think that’s the real parallel with both Big Oil and Big Tobacco. In each case, these big companies were told privately by their own scientists that there are serious questions about your product, whether it be cigarettes or fossil fuels or cellphones. And in each case, those executives decided not to share that with the public, but rather to keep that information to themselves, while telling the public and telling the press and telling policymakers there’s no problem.

There is a lot of evidence suggesting that we need to be a lot more careful about these cellphones. The World Health Organization has listed them as a possible carcinogen. And just last week, here in the United States, the National Institutes of Health had a major study, peer-reviewed, about cellphone radiation. And the peer-review scientists, who are independent of government, said that there was, quote, “clear evidence,” unquote, that cellphones can cause cancer.

And that is something that you have not read in the American media. And I have to say that that’s another part of the story, Amy, is how the U.S. news organizations and journalists have been hoodwinked, yet again, by a corporate propaganda campaign, where we listen more to what the industry says than to what independent scientists are saying.

Continue reading:  How the Wireless Industry Convinced the Public Cellphones Are Safe & Cherry-Picked Research on Risks

22 thoughts on “How the Wireless Industry Convinced the Public Cellphones Are Safe & Cherry-Picked Research on Risks”

    • Bingo! That’s why I never got a cell phone until last year (due to pressure from a friend, but it’s only talk & text), and that’s why my laptop internet connection is through an ethernet cable instead of wifi. Electromagnetic radiation isn’t good for grey matter. But, I still can’t avoid exposure to the myriad of communication towers and relay stations which constantly bombard us with microwaves. We’re being slowly cooked from the inside-out.

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        • Sorry, but if cellphones and accompanying “ills” are the worst that’s going on in the world today, I think somebody has got their head in the sand. No offense … but sheesh!

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        • What did my comment about Consumer Cellular having affordable prices have to do with a world wide crisis? I’m confused. I SHOULDN’T be glad I get a great deal on a phone a need but barely use? How’s that bad? Do these phones cause cancer? I’ve no idea. Since I hardly use the thing, even if they do cause cancer, it doesn’t really affect me, so I don’t truly care that much…Well, except for my second head, but other than that, I don’t care. I do think companies burying scientific research because it doesn’t “look” good for their product IS indicative of a larger problem of our money-grubbing society, but how my good deal on my phone bill is me commenting on a world wide crisis is lost on me. Sheesh!

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        • The impression I got from this article and Bob’s comment @ 9:08 was that they were a real negative thing to have around. Sorry if I misinterpreted. No intent to offend.

          Fact is, I’m quite fond of my cellphone. 🙂

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        • Oh puleeze, Bob! Don’t make assumptions that were not in any way intended by my remark. It was just a “throw-away” comment that I added for fun.

          This topic has been discussed off and on for quite some time. There may very well be truth to it, but I’m certainly not knowledgeable enough to discuss it in depth.

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  4. The information has been out there, just not in most outlets. A lot of people have expressed the opinion that this was ridiculous propaganda spread by stupid, scared people, but there’s plenty of science behind it.

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