Cell Phone Lawsuit Dropped

by Cynthia Waters

U. S. District Judge Catherine Blake dismissed a Maryland doctor's $800 million lawsuit that claimed cell phones were to blame for his brain cancer. Blake said the evidence submitted by Christopher Newman did not warrant a trial against Motorola, which manufactured the cell phone, and several major carriers.

Newman asserted that the older analog phone that he used from 1992 to 1998 could cause tumors. Judge Blake, however, ruled that the evidence overwhelmingly indicated that no relationship existed between cell phone radiation and cancer.

Swedish oncologist Lennart Hardell published a study in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention that claimed long-term users of analog cell phones were at least 30% more likely than non-users to develop brain tumors. Hardell's methodology was questioned by Judge Blake, who stated that it had not been "replicated or validated" by other scientists and that several studies in fact rejected the findings. Attorneys for Dr. Newman indicated that an appeal may be filed