Cell Phone Cancer Lawsuit Filed in 2001 Scheduled for Trial

By B.N. Frank

A former U.S. government official recently concluded that there is a high probability that radiation from cell phones causes brain tumors. Of course, he’s not the first to come to that conclusion about cell phones and other sources of wireless “Wi-Fi” radiation causing brain tumors and other cancers (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).

Another scientist recently wrote an op-ed about how cell phone radiation safety tests are inadequate because they are conducted on plastic mannequin heads. That makes sense – humans don’t have plastic heads.

There have been numerous lawsuits filed by people who believe they have been injured by exposure to cell phone radiation.

Thanks to Cell Phone Task Force for this update about a lawsuit 20 years in the making:

CANCER LAWSUIT FILED IN 2001 WILL FINALLY GO TO TRIAL In 2001 and 2002, Michael Patrick Murray and five other people, all of whom had brain tumors located beneath where they had held their cell phones, sued the telecommunications industry for damages. In 2010 and 2011, seven more brain cancer victims joined the case as additional plaintiffs.

The defendants represent most of the American telecommunications industry: Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Bell South, Bell Atlantic, Motorola, Qualcomm, Samsung, SONY, Sanyo, Nokia, the CTIA, the FCC, and dozens of other telecom companies.

Through extensive maneuvering and delaying tactics by the defendants, this important case has bounced back and forth from court to court for twenty years like a ping pong ball. It went from D.C. Superior Court, to U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, back to D.C. Superior Court, up to the D.C. Court of Appeals, back to D.C. Superior Court, back up to the D.C. Court of Appeals, and back to D.C. Superior Court.

This summer, despite the fact that many of the plaintiffs are no longer alive, Murray v. Motorola will finally go to trial. Expert witness are scheduled to testify before Judge Alfred S. Irving from July 12-23, 2021. If the judge rules that the witnesses are qualified, then they will later testify before a jury.

The witnesses for the plaintiffs include:

Dr. Igor Belyaev, Head Research Scientist at the Cancer Research Institute, Slovak Academy of Science

Dr. Michael Kundi, professor at the Medical University of Vienna and former head of its Institute of Environmental Health

Dr. Abraham Liboff, professor emeritus of physics at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan

Dr. Wilhelm Mosgoeller, associate professor at the Medical University of Vienna’s Institute of Cancer Research

Dr. Dimitris Panagopoulos, founder of the Radiation Biophysics Laboratory at the University of Athens

Dr. Laura Plunkett, toxicologist and principal consultant at Integrative Biostrategies in Houston, Texas

Dr. Christopher Portier, Senior Advisor to the World Health Organization’s Environmental Program and former Director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control

Dr. Portier’s report was submitted to the court on March 1, 2021.

BEGINNING THE HEALING The Murray case, which has been simmering on the back burner, is confronting us with a question that all the judges, and the courts, and the telecommunications companies, and the public, have managed to avoid for two decades. But the testimony we will hear in July from the world’s most prominent experts will focus directly on it: what are the cell phones in our hands doing to our bodies and to the world around us?

Has our attention on cell towers diverted attention away from where it needs to be?

There are about 14 billion mobile devices in the world, each emitting up to 2 watts of microwave radiation, for a combined emitting power of about 28 billion watts.

Outside of China, there are about 3 million 4G cell towers in the world, each emitting up to a few hundred watts of microwave radiation, for a combined emitting power of perhaps 1 billion watts. Within China, there are 6 million more 4G towers, for an additional 1 to 2 billion watts.

Where is most of the radiation coming from, cell phones or cell towers? Which are more responsible for killing birds and bees, cell phones or cell towers? When you measure the radiation levels where you live, what are you mostly measuring, the many phones around you or the fewer towers? It depends on where you live.

The biggest difference between phones and towers is that phones radiate equally in all directions, whereas towers focus most of their radiation along the ground. This can multiply the effective power of a cell tower on the ground by a factor of 30 or more. But even that is not enough to raise the average radiation levels on most of the earth from all the cell towers beyond the average radiation levels from all the cell phones. And high in the air, above the main beams of cell towers, birds and insects can receive more radiation from phones than from towers.

Cell phones, as we will hear in July, damage DNA, alter the structure of proteins, affect cell growth, damage sperm, cause spontaneous abortions, interfere with memory and learning, damage the blood-brain barrier, alter brain waves, disturb sleep, affect the immune system, alter metabolism, interfere with development, damage tissues and organs, and cause cancer. What, then, are all the cell phones doing to our world?

But the antennas on towers are so much bigger than phones, you may say. Size has nothing to do with it. The extra size mostly allows the tower to focus its beam along the ground instead of up in the air.

But towers are always on, you may say, and phones aren’t. Untrue. If all the phones were ever off, a tower would only emit enough power to let the phones know that it is there. And even when you think your phone is turned completely off, the resonant circuits within it are still connected to the battery and are still affecting the space around them.

But your phone only emits one frequency, you may say, while the tower emits hundreds. Yes, but the tower only emits hundreds of frequencies when hundreds of phones are communicating with it. The combined radiation and combined number of frequencies are still about the same from all the phones as from all the towers.

What is making people more sick, and doing more damage to the earth? The phones? Or the towers?

We have all had the experience that the higher in elevation we are, the more radiation we feel. This is partially because there are cell towers on the tops of hills and mountains. But it is also due to radio towers and radar stations, which do not focus their energy along the ground. Weather radars. Air traffic control radars. Civil defense radars. They are all proliferating and increasing in power and sophistication, and they are all helping to destroy the Earth. Cell towers are contributing too, but it is a mistake to blame the cell towers while you are holding a cell phone in your hand, or are keeping one in your home.

Just 25 years ago, the average human being did no harm to other species, or other humans, when taking a walk. Today, every human being is a source of radiation wherever he or she goes.

I have confined this discussion to 4G, because 5G is changing the picture. But it is not changing the picture as much as you may think. With 5G, both towers and phones will aim narrow beams at each other. This will further increase the effective power of both towers and phones more than tenfold, if you happen to be standing in the beam. But what this also means is that a person using a cell phone will be even more hazardous than before to any person or animal in their immediate vicinity, and to any bird or insect that flies between the phone and the tower. And since there are billions of phones on earth, woe be to any creature that still wants to fly through the air at all. Not because the towers will be emitting radiation at all times, but because there are so many cell phones to aim their beams at.

The late Pelda Levey, a co-founder of the Cellular Phone Task Force, told this joke about cell phones: “I have both good news and bad news about cell phones. The bad news is that a cell phone can give you a brain tumor. The good news is that if you feel one coming on, you can always call 911.”

Calling 911 will not save the Earth. Throwing away your cell phone just might. It might begin the healing.

Arthur Firstenberg Author, The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life

P.O. Box 6216 Santa Fe, NM 87502 USA phone: +1 505-471-0129

arthur@cellphonetaskforce.org

The last 14 newsletters, including this one, are available for downloading

and sharing on the Newsletters page of the Cellular Phone Task Force..

In regard to 5G phones, doctors, scientists, and telecom whistleblowers have endorsed a petition to boycott them.

Got pets? Exposure can affect them too.