[Press release] Phonegate : New request for the intervention of Ministers Hulot, Buzyn and Le Maire

How much more time will be lost before all mobile phone users are informed by the French, European and international public authorities of the serious risks to their health of keeping in contact with the body phones whose energy radiation thresholds far exceed the limit values?

In fact, the National Frequencies Agency (ANFR) has had this information since its first tests were carried out in 2012 but it was not revealed until July 2016 upon publication of the report by the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES):  “Exposure to Radiofrequencies and Child Health”.  It is the same for the other side of the Atlantic, since it was not until the end of 2017 that the California Department of Public Health published important recommendations on uses to be banned with regard to mobile phones. Since 2009, Dr. Joel Moscowitz had been demanding this action for transparency through a long and difficult legal battle.

Eighteen months after the launch of the alert on what is appearing more every day to resemble an international health and industrial scandal echoing the recent one of Dieselgate, the public authorities have absolutely not taken the measure of the public health issues.  My letter of June 19, 2017 to the Minister of the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Nicolas Hulot, and to the Minister of Solidarity and Health, Agnès Buzyn, remains ignored.

I thus wanted to write to them again, on Friday, January 5, 2018, adding to the recipients of this new letter, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy and Finance (with a copy for information to Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of National Education).  My letter requests the three ministers to intervene as rapidly as possible to protect the millions of French citizens, users of mobile phones, especially the youngest ones.  My correspondence lists some of the smartphones which present the most risks among those tested by ANFR, mentioning for some of them, the portion of the French market share in 2017.

Read the letter to find my proposals for action:

Act forcibly through the relevant ministry so that it obliges ANFR without delay to be totally transparent on this subject by having the Agency send to me, in accordance with the aforementioned notification of CADA, all the reports on test measurements conducted between 2012 and 2017 and to publish them:

• Inform the public of the risks of mobile phones in contact with the body.  This includes making the public aware that mobile phone manufacturers who place on the market phones displaying a misleading SAR “body” value compared to the values established in actual use, are endangering the health of users of these phones:
• Launch a new prevention campaign on the proper use of mobile phones, drawing on that of the California Department of Public Health;
• Withdraw or recondition all mobile phones which, although declared « compliant » with the law, have a higher SAR body than the 2 W/kg limit value with actual use, relying on the test results from ANFR.
• Submit a request to the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) for it to launch a full investigation of the deceptive and unfair practices regarding consumers.
• Review as rapidly as possible with the European Commission the Norm EN50566/2013 as well as the European Directive 2014/53/UE which regulate the placing on the market of mobile phones to ensure both true transparency and the protection of the health of users.

Reminding them that this extremely alarming situation cannot and must not last any longer.  Otherwise, the State will be held responsible for not wanting to take urgent measures to address this new health and industrial scandal, Phonegate*.

*The origin of this term comes from Pierre Le Hir (Le Monde of December 23, 2016) « Soupçons sur les ondes des téléphones portables »