The city of San Francisco ca n’t make retailers display mansion and stickers with information about cellphone health risks , but it can require retailers to give client an entropy sheet about it , a federal judge rule on Thursday .
The CTIA , an arrangement representing mobile phone operators , convey a suit after the metropolis passed an ordinance requiring retailers to hang poster observe that cellphones let out receiving set frequency free energy . The posters also would offer tips for avoiding health risk possibly associate with such RF energy . In plus to the posters , the ordinance required retailer to place stickers with the monition on store displays and supply client with fact canvass about bound exposure to RF .
Judge William Alsup , who is presiding over the case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California , notice that requiring retailers to hang the poster “ is not reasonably necessary and would unduly intrude on the retailers ’ paries space . ”
He also say that the sticker necessary is unconstitutional because it will “ unduly intrude upon the retailers ’ own message . ”
He did , however , allow the requirement that retailers give each customer a fact plane make grow by the urban center , as long as the city accepts a few of his edits . While each of the fact on the sheet is accurate , the overall message is misleading , he wrote . “ The overall impression left is that prison cell phone are dangerous and that they have somehow escaped the regulative cognitive operation . That printing is out of true , ” he wrote .
The ordination says that retailer must give the fact tack to everyone who buy a telephone set and to any other shoppers who request the fact sheet . Retailers will be ticket for failing to comply .
To make clear that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission already regulates mobile phone , Alsup asked that the city add this line to the fact sheet : “ Although all cell phones sold in the United States must comply with RF safety limits go under by the FCC , no safety field has ever predominate out the hypothesis of human harm from RF photograph . ”
“ If this corrective point is insufferable to San Francisco , then the entire programme will be enjoined and San Francisco should broadcast its message at its own expense rather than compelling retailers to disseminate deceptive statements , ” Alsup wrote .
He also need the urban center to explain the signification of a warning it quote from the World Health Organization . The fact sheet should let in a sentence noting that the WHO designates RF as a “ possible ” rather than a “ known ” or “ likely ” carcinogen .
The city must also remove image on the fact sheet that show a silhouette of a person carrying a mobile phone surrounded by concentrical Mexican valium . The evaluator thinks the range of a function could be interpreted as indicating that cellphones are dangerous , and because he does n’t see proof that they are , he is requiring the range of a function to be bump off .
The city plan to appeal part of the order . “ I disaccord with his decision to limit the City ’s message in the way he has done . We will ask the Ninth Circuit to continue the constituent of the ruling that allows the fact sheet to go forward , but we will also expect the Court to make exculpated that we have even wide office to protect the wellness of our people , ” City Attorney Dennis Herrera said .
The CTIA did not reply to a request for comment made after its regular business hours .
Attorneys involved in the case are asked to meet on Nov. 4 to tally on the revised fact sheet and give in a interpretation that conform to the order , or contend variant if the two sides ca n’t agree . If the city does n’t take the judge ’s terms , then the intact regulation will be overturned , he say . The ordinance is stayed temporarily until Nov. 30 to let for collection of the order .
