City of San Francisco wants consumers warned about potential cell phone risks

The city of San Francisco is closing in on making its revised Cell Phone Right-to-Know Ordinance, law. The Ordinance, if it makes it past its last legislative stop, will require a store to prominently display a poster by the city’s Department of the Environment that would explain how energy waves emitted from cell phones can be absorbed by a person's head and body. The poster will show handset users how to lower their exposure to these energy waves. Retailers would also have to pass out a fact sheet to customers who ask for one.

Lately, the discussion about whether or not cell phones cause cancer has been swinging back and forth like a pendulum. As we reported, the latest word is that the latest batch of evidence refutes the cell phone-cancer connection. With this in mind, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors is supposed to vote on the Ordinance this Tuesday. If it passes, it goes to the Mayor's office for his John Hancock.

If this becomes law in San Francisco, as is likely, we would expect to see other major cities move quickly to pass similar measures while the iron is hot. We would also expect to see the handset manufacturers start a counterattack. While so far, all of the rumors of a possible cancer link have not stopped smartphone users from parting with their loved one (meaning their phone), getting warned with a scary poster in your face every time you walk into a Verizon or AT&T, or Best Buy Mobile is bound to wear down some people. While no business is as hot as the smartphone business is these days, losing customers to a health scare is generally not a profitable way to conduct a business.

source: CNN