Mobile phones will not cause brain cancer

By Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON: A federal court on Monday handed the wireless industry a victory in its efforts to fight claims that mobile telephones pose a health risk, dismissing expert testimony in a key lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake dismissed the testimony and scientific evidence offered by a Maryland doctor, Christopher Newman, who filed an $800 million lawsuit against Motorola Inc., alleging their cellular phone caused him to have brain cancer. The closely watched case is seen as a major legal test in the controversy over whether cellular phones pose a health hazard to users.

Newman's experts "reasoning, theories, and methodology have not gained general acceptance in the scientific community," Blake said in her decision for the U.S. District Court of Maryland. The judge said numerous national and international scientific and government reports had found no proof that cellular phones caused human brain cancer and the evidence offered to the contrary had not been replicated or otherwise validated.

The decision follows a hearing in February and March on expected evidence and both sides tried to have expert testimony excluded from the trial. Federal rules require evidence presented must be relevant and reliable. The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association said it and Motorola, Cingular Wireless, T-MobileUSA, and Verizon Wireless, among others, plan to file a motion to dismiss the case in the wake of the judge's ruling.

"The decision effectively appears to block this particular $800 million lawsuit from going to trial, which removes, at least for now, considerable legal and financial overhang for wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers such as Verizon Wireless and Motorola," Legg Mason Equity Research said.

The firm's analysts added that this case was meant to be the lead case against the industry and that the judge's ruling was not likely to be overturned by an appeals court. A lawyer representing the doctor was not immediately available for comment.

Last month, a Swedish study found that long-term users of some first generation mobile phones face an up to 80 percent greater risk of developing brain tumors than those who did not use the phones. The study, published in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention, looked at 1,617 Swedish patients diagnosed with brain tumors between 1997 and 2000, comparing them with a similar control group without brain tumors.

The world's biggest mobile producer, Finland's Nokia Oyj disputed that study, noting that scores of other studies conducted on the health effects of mobile phones showed no evidence of health hazards for users.

© Reuters