Court refuses to block Berkeley law requiring cell phone warnings

A federal appeals court denied a request Wednesday by cell phone companies to halt enforcement of a Berkeley ordinance requiring retailers to tell customers that carrying switched-on phones next to their bodies might expose them to radiation levels above federal guidelines.

The measure requires sellers to notify customers that the Federal Communications Commission sets radiation guidelines for cell phones, and that a user may be exposed to levels that exceed those guidelines by carrying a phone in a pocket or tucked into a bra when the device is connected to a wireless network.

The ordinance originally also required the notice to state that “this potential risk is greater for children,” but the City Council removed that language after U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled in September that it was not based on the federal standards but was a matter of scientific debate.

In seeking a stay, the industry group told the appeals court that Berkeley’s customer warning was “deliberately misleading and inflammatory” and would “create needless public anxiety about a product that is a part of consumers’ everyday lives.”