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The EMR Network sent a letter to the agency head of each of the RFIAWG members on January 31, 2002. The letter addressed to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Whitman is posted here. The letter asked each agency for its position on FCC's assertion in dismissing The Network's Petition that:

If efforts to revise or update RF safety limits based on research in that field or on other factors are appropriate, that determination should be made by these [EPA, FDA] or other federal agencies with primary expertise in and responsibility for ensuring public health and safety, and should not be made in the first instance by the FCC.

None of the RFIAWG agency responses proposes to take the initiatives suggested by the FCC's letter of dismissal.

The response of EPA is key because it has responsibilities under Section 309 of The Clean Air Act for the environmental effects of RF radiation. EPA's letter came for Norbert Hankin, Center for Science and Risk Assessment, Radiation Protection Division and Chairman of RFIAWG. It states that:

The FCC's exposure guideline is considered protective of effects arising from a thermal mechanism but not from all possible mechanisms. Therefore, the generalization by many that the guidelines protect human beings from harm by any or all mechanisms is not justified.

The letters from the agencies that responded are posted here: (The links below are all pdf files that will open in a new browser window.)

There has been no response from:

  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that has responsibility for mobile phone hand set radiation
  • National Telecommunications Information Agency (NTIA)

The EMR Network forwarded these responses to the FCC in a letter dated July 25, 2002.

Senators Patrick Leahy(VT-D) and James Jeffords (VT-I) and Congressman Bernard Sanders (VT-I) have written letters to the FCC asking when a response to The EMR Network's Application for Review of the December 11, 2001 dismissal can be expected.

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