Moving at the Speed of Light

It's 1993. Responding to public fears about brain cancer, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) announces a five-year, $25 million safety research plan. Set up in April, the program will become known as Wireless Technology Research (WTR). The U.S. has 12 million cellular phone users.

In 1994, program head Dr. George Carlo promises that the first biological studies will be under way, "with checks signed," by the end of the year. It doesn't happen.
In 1995, WTR calls itself "an unparalleled undertaking in the field of science-literally the largest independent research project of its kind in the world." In December, WTR pays for seven people to attend a conference in Waikiki, Hawaii. Not one test tube has gotten wet.

In 1996, almost half of the $25 million is gone. Lucent Technologies' Ron Petersen says, "We cannot really account for the money that WTR has spent." The cancer research program, he says, "is really nonexistent. There's nothing there." At year's end, the test tubes are all still dry.

In 1997, WTR announces that it will not do any chronic animal studies, once a key part of WTR's "research agenda," which took two years and countless meetings to produce. Carlo insists that WTR is "moving at the speed of light." Today, after five years and $20 million, WTR does not have results from a single biological experiment. More than 55 million Americans now use cellular phones.

We have only one question: Has the CTIA's plan failed- or has it in fact succeeded?

Hintergrund
Warum die CTIA das WTR-Programm mit George L. Carlo startete
Was das IZgMF-Forum über den Lobbyisten George Carlo weiß