S.F. puts cell phone radiation law on hold

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Source: San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco has rarely shied away from a legal fight over its cutting-edge laws - be it Walgreens suing over the ban on selling cigarettes in drug stores or restaurants taking the city to court over its requirement that employers provide health care coverage.

But the city's first-of-its-kind mandate requiring that retailers of cell phones label them with radiation levels has been placed on indefinite hold, and a watered-down version is likely to be passed in its place.

Then-Mayor Gavin Newsom introduced the landmark legislation last year, and it was passed on a 10-1 vote by the Board of Supervisors. It required stores to display the radiation levels alongside each phone for sale. Newsom called it a "modest, commonsense measure" to give shoppers easy access to information phone manufacturers already have.

The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, a trade group representing cell phone companies, sued the city over the law, saying that all phones marketed in the United States are considered safe by the Federal Communications Commission. The association also warned that the city could have to pick up the trade group's legal fees if the city lost.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/06/BAVB1JB9L6.DTL