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Italian, German researchers link RF to disease - OSHA
wants carriers to play role in tower safety (31/10/02)
Tramès per Klaus Rudolph (Citizens'
Initiative Omega)
Italian, German researchers
link RF to disease
by JEFFREY SILVA
. October 28, 2002
WASHINGTON-As the wireless industry
prepares for oral argument in class-action headset and brain-cancer litigation
this Friday, it was reminded that the health issue is not about to go
away even as one lawsuit after another gets tossed by the courts.
Media outlets here and across the Atlantic were awash last week with stories
of a new study linking mobile-phone radiation to cancer growth. The research,
first reported by New Scientist magazine, was conducted by cell biologist
Fiorenzo Marinelli and other scientists at the National Research Council
in Bologna, Italy. According to the article,
researchers observed that strong mobile-phone radiation directed at leukemia
cells first killed the cancer cells, but eventually caused them to aggressively
multiply.
Marinelli did not respond to a request for comment last Thursday.
The mobile-phone industry, pointing to recent court rulings and pronouncements
of government health organizations here and overseas, continues to maintain
that cell phones are safe. Most health and safety organizations say that
while they see no immediate cause for alarm, they cannot guarantee phones
are safe and believe more research is needed to double check findings
of DNA breaks, genetic damage and other adverse bioeffects that have shown
up.
The Marinelli study is not the first to have observed an initial protective
or cancer-inhibiting effect from radio-frequency radiation exposure that
disappeared with extended exposure.
Earlier this month, a group of German doctors associated with a group
named IGUMED said they believe there is a connection between mobile-phone
radiation and a rise in a variety of diseases and illnessesin their country.
The physicians, among other things, called for stricter safety limits
and independent research.
The developments come as a newly published Australian study has comeunder
attack from a broad cross section of scientists. The study, whichwas published
shortly before a Baltimore federal judge blocked an $800 million cancer
lawsuit from going to trial, was designed to replicate a1997 study that
found an increased like lihood of cancer in lab mice exposed to mobile-phone
radiation. The new Australian study did not detect any such link, but
newsletter Microwave News this month quotes researchers-some associated
with the industry-as saying the experiment did not replicate the earlier
study and is highly flawed.
OSHA wants carriers
to play role in tower safety
by JEFFREY SILVA
. October 28, 2002
WASHINGTON-The Occupational Safety
and Health Administration may revive plans to get wireless carriers involved
in efforts to improve tower safety, an area with interwoven legal and
regulatory implications that mobile-phone operators have avoided to date.
One possible reason for that is the law, which effectively allows wireless
carriers and general contractors to escape liability for fatal tower falls
by keeping a safe distance from the actual construction and maintenance
of structures that house mobile-phone antennas. Instead, small subcontractors
typically take the hit-in the form of relatively small OSHA fines-when
workers die from falls.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said telecom
tower work, which has skyrocketed as a result of increased wireless licensing
in the past decade, has become the riskiest profession in the country.
NIOSH said nearly 100 tower workers died from falls between 1992 and 1997.
Federal regulators privately question the adequacy of government guidelines
on tower safety.
The safety problem has been left to a handful of individuals in government
and the financially troubled tower industry. While making solid progress,
it does not appear they are winning the battle to improve tower safety.
Meanwhile, wireless carriers have yet to lend their considerable financial
and political clout to the issue.
"What we're trying to do is hold a higher level of accountability
... We need a broader stroke of the brush," said Rob Medlock, area
director of OSHA in Cleveland. In 2000, Medlock drafted a letter calling
on wireless carriers to lend their resources and voice to tower safety.
The letter was moving up the chain of command in OSHA, but eventually
got lost in
the shuffle in the change of administrations. Now, Medlock, at the urging
of the National Association of Tower Erectors, wants the new OSHA leadership
to reach out to the mobile-phone industry. Officials from OSHA and NATE
recently met to discuss progress on a government-industry partnership
that promotes tower safety in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota
and Michigan. They also talked strategy.
"We are looking for opportunities to help save lives," said
Patrick Howey, executive director of NATE. "Practices and procedures
for working safely on towers have been developed and are available. The
next step in the process is reaching an understanding among all parties
in the industry that the company hired to show up on the job site has
been
properly trained and is properly equipped. There are plenty of companies
out there right now who meet those qualifications. We need to work together
to make sure they are the companies getting the jobs."
NATE and OSHA said they would like to grow their safety partnership into
a national program. Don Doty of SpectraSite, a NATE member, and others
in the tower industry are developing standards for hoist lines and gin
poles that could eventually be incorporated into OSHA rules. Other OSHA
rule changes are being contemplated as well.
"While wireless carriers are always concerned about tower safety,
PCIA has asserted itself as the voice of the tower industry and tower-related
questions should be referred to them," said Travis Larson, a spokesman
for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, a trade
group with a nearly $40 million budget.
But PCIA, which lost out to CTIA in the battle over wireless carrier representation,
does not promote tower safety as an association. Indeed, PCIA has adopted
a position at odds with the big tent approach sought by NATE and OSHA.
"PCIA members-from very large to very small companies-have decided
to manage safety issues on a company-by-company
basis," stated PCIA. "This allows them to more effectively address
the specific safety needs inherent in their own business considerations.
They work with OSHA and other labor authorities to provide a safe workplace
for their staff and contractors."
Informant: Janet Newton at EMRNetwork
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