California Department of Public Health Releases
Secret Cell Phone Safety Guidance
The San Francisco Chronicle published this news story online May 19, 2017.
The California Attorney General’s Office released 27 versions of a cell phone radiation safety fact sheet prepared by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) initially in 2009 and revised multiple times through January, 2015.
The State has never adopted this fact sheet nor released it to the public due to suppression by “political appointees” according to my sources.
The recommendations in the final version of the fact sheet are sound. CDPH should adopt and disseminate the fact sheet now. The public has a right to know the information that the Department’s health professionals have been trying to share with them since 2009. I further recommend that the fact sheet be updated annually consistent with the latest research.
The fact sheet is based upon reviews of the research conducted by the CDPH Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control between 2009 and 2014.
The original document reflected a consensus of the Division (Document 25, file date: 6/17/2009; pp.104-109). The fact sheet summarized research on the health effects associated with exposure to cell phone and cordless phone radiation. It provided recommendations to the California Department of General Services, the “business manager” for the State, regarding cell phone purchases. The fact sheet also included safety tips for state employees and the general public, especially children, about safe use of phones to minimize exposure to wireless radiation.
The final version of the fact sheet omits recommendations to the Department of General Services and does not discuss cordless phones (Document 1, file date 1/26/2015; pp. 6-8).
In 2014, I submitted three requests to the CDPH under the California Public Records Act for this information. All three requests were denied.
In 2016, the UC Berkeley School of Law Environmental Law Clinic and the First Amendment Project filed a lawsuit on my behalf in the Sacramento Superior Court.
On May 12 of this year, the Attorney General’s office mailed us 27 documents to comply with the March 13 court ruling.
The case is Dr. Joel Moskowitz v. California Department of Public Health (#34-2016-80002358).
Supplemental materials
Substantive changes to fact sheet: http://bit.ly/CDPHchanges
Table of contents for 27 versions of fact sheet: http://bit.ly/CDPHToC
Contents of 27 versions of fact sheet (8 MB file): http://bit.ly/AGCDPHdocs