New SF Cell-phone Law Goes Overboard, Federal Court Steps in

Earlier in July this year, a new cell-phone radiation law was passed in San Francisco requiring mobile companies to properly inform their customers about the dangers of radiation. On Thursday, the federal court ordered that the city soften these regulations.

Because of the potential dangers and long-term health effects of cell-phone usage, the Board of Supervisors initially passed the law asking companies to include fact sheets to warn customers. Advocates of the law believe there is substantial evidence showing correlations to serious risks like brain damage overtime.

The fact should would include the World Health Organization's warning that cell-phones' radio-frequency emissions are possible carcinogens, including suggested safer methods of cell-phone usage, such as using headsets, making shorter calls, or limiting their exposure to children. It also wanted companies to display those messages on storefronts and ads in the form of posters and stickers.

Almost four months after the law passed, federal judges now find that this requirement misleads consumers to believe that mobile devices are more unsafe than they are, causing people to believe the phones do not undergo regulatory processes.

In fact, U.S. District Judge William Alsup explains to SF Gate that all cell-phones sold in our country must meet a certain level of safety standard adhering to those of the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC, however, has so far not indicated any device to emit dangerous radiation levels.

This type of ordinance is the first that the country has seen and was set to go into effect last week. The federal judge asks that San Francisco revise the fact sheet and drop the requirements for stores to display those warnings. The law is thus found unconstitutional for misinterpreting potential dangers as an inevitable outcome.

The ordinance is currently put on hold until November 30^th this year. District Judge Alsup also notes that if San Francisco is reluctant to revise the health warnings on factsheets, the entire ordinance will end up being scrapped.