Federal Judge Lets Cell Phone Suit Stand

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January 20, 2001
In a major blow to the cell phone industry, a federal judge in New Orleans has let stand a lawsuit that charges manufacturers are making and selling cell phones with the knowledge that they are dangerous.

U.S. District Court Judge Ivan L. R. Lemelle ruled that since the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not issued standards regulating cell phones, the states are not pre-empted from regulating the devices and state courts are not barred from hearing lawsuits about the potential dangers of cell phones.

New Orleans attorney Michael Allweiss filed suit on behalf of a Louisiana resident. He is seeking to make the suit a class action, which could potentially include 110 million U.S. cell phone users.

Allweiss' suit does not claim his client suffered specific health problems but argues that cell phone manufacturers have for quite some time been aware that cell phones emit radiation into users' brains and have done nothing to protect their customers. The suit argues that cell phones should have been sold with headsets as standard equipment, thus reducing users' exposure to potentially harmful radiation.

Among other remedies, the suit asks that cell phone manufacturers supply headsets to past and future customers and reimburse those who purchased headsets on their own.

Lawyers for the cell phone industry argued that Congress had given the FDA the sole authority to oversee cell phone safety and that courts and state legislatures had thus been pre-empted. But Allweiss argued -- and the judge agreed -- that since the FDA has not issued standards, the courts and other jurisdictions are free to act.

The ruling damaged a major pillar in the industry's defense strategy and Allweiss says he is eager to get cell phone executives on the stand so he can grill them about what they knew and when they knew it.

A major critic of the cell phone industry, Dr. George Carlo, was quoted by The Standard as saying the Louisiana ruling shows "there is nothing of substance to protect consumers."

"Federal agencies are not doing what they should be doing. It's going to backfire on the inidustry because it's going to be clear that the FDA is not doing its job," he said. Carlo is the author of a new expose, Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age.

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