Art, No damages. But the FCC has to go back, consider whether there is credible evidence of non-cancer harm from radiation at levels below its current standard, and address this issue again. As the dissenting opinion points out that the Commission heretofore has been clear that it relies on the FDA, EPA, and related agencies that are directly charged with protecting the public health in these matters. But the Court found that the FCC cannot merely rely upon the conclusions of these expert agencies unless those agencies articulate fully in the FCC’s record the basis for their conclusions, even here when the Commission was asking questions in a Notice of Inquiry that did not propose to make rules changes on the matters and would have required further proceedings before it adopts any changes. The impact for amateur radio purposes is uncertain, but there is nothing positive here. Either the FCC will better justify on paper their conclusions that no change to the current standard relevant to the petitioners’ concerns is required; or that additional, and more strict limits should be considered to protect against non-cancer illnesses. I think it will be the former. But the fact that the Court declined to defer to the FCC’s reliance on the FDA conclusions, and seemed instead to require either that the FDA submit for the FCC’s record a full analysis backing its conclusions or the FCC itself independently evaluate FDA’s conclusions complicates the Commission’s work. 73, Dave K3ZJ From: "Arthur I. Zygielbaum" <aiz@ctwsoft.com> Date: Friday, August 13, 2021 at 1:43 PM To: "david@davidsiddall-law.com" <david@davidsiddall-law.com> Subject: Re: [arrl-odv:32684] FCC Decision on RF Exposure Judicially Rejected in Part Dave, Interesting. What effect would this have on the FCC or what action would it cause them to take? Or does it just make the federal government liable for damages? Art On 8/13/2021 11:58 AM, david davidsiddall-law.com wrote: ODV In what I can only describe as a highly unusual decision, today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit remanded to the FCC a case objecting to the Commission not changing its RF safety rules in 2019. “The Court found that the Commission failed to provide a reasoned explanation for its determination that its guidelines adequately protect against the harmful effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation unrelated to cancer.” The case is Environmental Health Trust, Consumers for Safe Cell Phones, et al v. FCC, which can be read in full at this link: https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/FB976465BF00F8BD85258730.... For your background, the Environmental Health Trust (EHT) and 13 co-petitioners claimed the FCC violated several federal laws when the FCC decided in 2019 that no updates were needed to the Commission’s RF Safety rules and standards. The petitioners argued that there were “thousands of pages of research on the FCC record showing harmful effects from wireless radiofrequency radiation” that the Commission ignored. The basic proposition of these groups, as I understand it, is that cell phones and other wireless devices pose a risk to health. Should you want more information, the EHT website is at this link: https://ehtrust.org/eht-takes-the-fcc-to-court/. 73, Dave David R. Siddall Managing Partner DS Law, PLLC 1629 K St. NW, Ste 300 Washington, DC 20006 direct: +1 202 559 4690 Unauthorized Disclosure Prohibited. This e-mail is intended solely for the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is proprietary, confidential or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, it is prohibited to disclose, copy, distribute, or use the contents of this email and its attachments. If you received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all electronic and physical copies of the e-mail message and its attachments. Unintended transmission shall not constitute waiver of attorney-client or any other privilege. Thank you. _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv