California: Here’s how to handle unfounded fears of cell phone cancer

Enlarge / A man is seen calling on an iPhone on October 30, 2017. (credit: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The California Department of Public Health officially issued a guidance Friday on how to reduce exposure to radio-frequency energy released by cell phones-despite a lack of solid scientific data suggesting that such exposure poses any harm.

The guidance follows the Department's legal defeat earlier this year surrounding the release of such a guidance.

In 2014, public health researcher Joel Moskowitz of the University of California, Berkeley, sued the department after it refused to release the guidance to him. The Department said at the time that its guidance was merely an unapproved, incomplete draft that was not ready for public release and could needlessly raise alarm. In a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle at the time, the Department further explained that it had shelved the guidance years ago in accordance with the latest stance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the time-and to this day-the CDC says that there is no definitive data on the subject and that "more research is needed before we know if using cell phones causes health effects."

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