The City and County of San Francisco announced the nations first cell phone ordinance.
Recommendations from the city include:
• Limiting cell phone use by children: Developing brains and thinner skulls lead to higher absorption in children.
• Using a headset, speakerphone or text instead: Exposure decreases rapidly with increasing distance from the phone.
• Using belt clips and purses to keep distance between your phone and body: Do not carry on your body to at least meet the distance specified in your phone’s user manual
• Avoiding cell phones in areas with weak signals (elevators, on transit, etc.) Using a cell phone in areas of good reception decreases exposure by allowing the phone to transmit at reduced power.
• Reducing the number and length of calls: Turn off your cell phone when not in use.
The materials required under the ordinance include a factsheet, poster and stickers.
Amy OHair has posted more commentary on this SF ordinance:
http://stopsmartmeters.org/2011/10/11/a-right-to-know-not-if-the-wireless-industry-has-its-way/
It’s hard to love this thing, despite it’s landmark status. I was part of the workshop that reviewed the material five days before the finalization, and I can tell you, it got hella watered down. Everything about the materials except the five-point fact sheet (which has no reference to pregnant woman) was stronger—the cell-phone radiation illustration, the warning, the language.
What happened? The draft poster said plainly boldly, and importantly: “Exposure can occur whenever your phone is on.” This is the sort of simple bald fact so many people don’t have in their minds. There was no “Studies continue to assess etc etc” on the front of the poster, such as ended up on the final.
And what did playing nice with the wireless industry get them—they still got hit with a lawsuit the following business day.