Wireless/Mobile /

Cell phone industry faces legal tests

By Sharon Gaudin
Network World, 07/02/01

Gibb Brower, a 41-year-old, self-employed landscaper in San Diego, used a cell phone to help run his business from the road or on job sites for four years.

He says his cell phones - an analog Motorola flip phone and a digital Sony - caused the growth of two tumors and a surrounding cancer field on the right side of his head where he held the phone.

Brower, who is already more than a year into a predicted two-year life expectancy, has filed suit against Motorola, Sony and at least one carrier. The suit is still ongoing.

Brower says part of his remorse comes from using a cell phone against his own best judgement.

"It was easier logistically [to use a cell phone]," says Brower, who has gone through surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, and suffers from fatigue and short-term memory loss. "From day one, I was worried about contracting brain cancer because of earlier reports . . . Anything that can remotely give you a chance of cancer, I stay away from. But I was assured by the people I got the phone from that it was safe."

The landscaper was what those in the industry call a "big bucket user." He had a plan for 800 to 1,200 minutes of use per month. Brower maintains it was that use that made him sick.

The number of cases involving mobile phones is on the increase, although to date no one has won a judgment against a cell phone manufacturer.

Michael Allweiss, a New Orleans attorney, has filed a class-action lawsuit that charges giants in the cellular industry with breach of warranty, alleging they made claims of safety that they knew were not true.

"Cell phones emit radio frequency radiation, and the evidence establishes to our satisfaction that it puts you at risk of harm when you use the phone," says Allweiss, who is working with Peter Angelos, the attorney from Maryland renowned for winning a reported $4.3 billion for his state against the tobacco industry.

Angelos is representing Chris Newman, a neurologist who blames his brain tumor on his use of a cell phone. Newman has filed a lawsuit against many industry giants, including Motorola, Cell One and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.

Ian Elfenbaum, a managing partner with Whitney Wolfe Elfenbaum and Evers, a Chicago law firm, says he has filed suit against Motorola for one of the manufacturer's former phone testers, who has developed a brain tumor.

"His tumor is where he held the phone," says Elfenbaum, who adds that his client has undergone surgery and is considered totally disabled. "We have a lot of leads and information that I think will put it together."

Norman Sandler, director of global strategic issues for Motorola, says he can't ascribe motives to anyone, but notes that the issue of cell phone safety came to the forefront when the media caught hold of the Reynard case in 1993. David Reynard sued the manufacturer of his wife's cell phone, alleging the phone caused the brain tumor that killed her. The case was dismissed.

"It's a consequence of the popularity and the proliferation of the _technology," Sandler says. "Mobile phones and other wireless devices are becoming more and more ubiquitous and attract a lot of attention. That popularity has fed a lot of the interest or speculation in the possible consequences of their use."

Adds Mikael Westmark, health and safety spokesperson for Ericsson, "The mobile telephone is the most popular consumer device ever, and this attracts people who want to make money."