Children's Health Defense By Martine Vriens and Dafna Tachover
On January 13, 2020, Turin’s Court of Appeals confirmed a 2017 decision determining that a former Telecom Italia worker’s acoustic neuroma (a benign tumor in the ear) was caused by his mobile phone use. This is the sixth time that an Italian court has affirmed a causal link between cell phone use and brain tumors, including decisions by the High Court of Italy.
The Appellate court reached its decision after a review of the evidence and after receiving the opinion of two court-appointed experts. The experts referred the court to studies indicating that individuals who speak on their phones for an average of 30 minutes a day for at least 10 years increase their risk of developing head tumors. After considering this evidence, the Appellate court in Turin stated, “There are solid elements to affirm a causal role between the exposure of the person to radiofrequencies from mobile phones and the disease that arose.”
Crucially, the Turin court stated that the studies provided by the defense—which denied a causal link—were mostly industry-funded and, therefore, should be given less weight because of conflicts of interest. Studies by members of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCHENIHR) also suffer from conflicts of interest, according to the Turin court, because these organizations likewise receive funding from industry. The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) International EMF Project and many countries around the world have adopted the industry-funded ICNIRP’s recommendations as their safety guidelines. Thus, these statements by the court—calling out the influence of industry funding and conflicts of interest—are extremely significant.
The Turin court’s ruling affirmed the decision of the court of Ivera from 2017. Roberto Romeo, age 57, used his cell phone for three to four hours of each working day for 15 years. He was diagnosed with acoustic neuroma in 2010, and his acoustic nerve had to be removed. As reported in The Guardian, “A medical expert estimated the damage to Romeo at 23% of his bodily function, prompting the judge to make a compensation award of €500 per month to be paid by INAIL, a national insurance program covering workplace accidents.”
Earlier court decisions
Acoustic neuromas are tumors that develop on the main nerve leading from the inner ear to the brain. This nerve influences balance and hearing. Pressure from an acoustic neuroma can cause hearing loss, ringing in the ear and unsteadiness, occasionally also interfering with brain functioning. Acoustic neuroma is also known as “vestibular schwannoma” because it develops on the Schwann cells covering the nerve. Of note, the U.S. government’s $25 million National Toxicology Program cell phone study found that exposure to cell phone radiation caused schwannoma-type tumors.