The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has 30 days to explain why it hasn’t complied with a 2021 court order requiring the agency to reveal how it determined that current wireless radiation exposure limits — which haven’t been updated in 30 years — adequately protect people and the environment, a federal appeals court ruled today.
Within a month, the FCC must respond to a petition filed earlier this year by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) requesting the information.
“This is a huge deal, and we are very pleased with the court’s order,” said Miriam Eckenfels, director of CHD’s Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) & Wireless Program.
Today’s order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit represents a big step toward holding the FCC accountable for its ongoing refusal to protect people and the environment from wireless radiation, Eckenfels said.
“The FCC’s inaction to address the mountain of science on the health impacts of wireless radiation is nothing short of reckless,” she said.
‘This signals that the court is interested in the issue’
In 2019, the FCC chose not to update its 1996 radiofrequency (RF) radiation exposure safety limits and to terminate a legal inquiry into scientific evidence of adverse biological effects of RF radiation.
In response, CHD and other petitioners, including the Environmental Health Trust, sued the FCC. The groups filed 11,000 pages of evidence of harm from 5G and wireless technology — evidence that they alleged the FCC ignored in 2019, when it decided not to update its safety limits.
In 2021, after CHD and the other petitioners’ cases were consolidated into EHT et al. v. FCC, the District of Columbia Circuit sided with CHD.
The 2021 ruling called the FCC’s 2019 decision “arbitrary and capricious” because it failed to consider the non-cancer evidence of adverse health effects caused by wireless technology.
According to the 2021 ruling:
“In addition to the Commission’s inadequate response to the non-cancer-related effects of RF radiation on human health, the Commission also completely failed even to acknowledge, let alone respond to, comments concerning the impact of RF radiation on the environment.
“That utter lack of a response does not meet the Commission’s obligation to provide a reasoned explanation for terminating the notice of inquiry.”
Hellbound and Down 