Oct. 20/99  While the cell phone industry has assured consumers for years that cellular phones are completely safe, the industry's former  research director has now come forward to say this can no longer be presumed. "The industry had come out and said  that there were thousands of studies that
proved that wireless phones are safe, and the fact was that there were no studies that were directly relevant," says Dr. George Carlo. For the past six years, Carlo ran the cell phone industry's $25 million
research program, which has studied the effects of microwave radiation from cell  phones.
"We've moved into an area where we now have some direct evidence of possible harm from cellular phones," Carlo says in an interview with ABCNEWS' 20/20.

Although Carlo does not say that cell phones are  unsafe, he does say that more research is needed.
The $200-billion-a-year cell phone industry maintains  the devices are safe. "There is a preponderance of evidence that there is not a linkage between the use of wireless phones and health effects," says Thomas Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, the industry's
trade group.   The industry has announced that it supports and will  sponsor follow-up research.

              Electromagnetic Waves Sent Into Brain

                What many of the country's 80 million cell phone users
                 may not know is that cell phones send electromagnetic
                 waves into users' brains. In fact, every cell phone model
                 sold in the United States has a specific measurement of
                 how much microwave energy from the phone can
                 penetrate the brain.
                      Depending on how close the cell phone antenna is to
                 the head, as much as 60 percent of the microwave
                 radiation is absorbed by and actually penetrates the area
                 around the head, some reaching an inch to an
                 inch-and-a-half into the brain.
                      "This is the first generation that has put relatively
                 high-powered transmitters against the head, day after
                 day," says Dr. Ross Adey, who has worked for industry
                 and government for decades studying microwave radiation,
                 and is one of the most respected scientists in the field.
 

                 Position Matters

                 The cell phone industry says every phone it sells is safe
                 and meets government radiation safety limits. But tests
                 conducted by 20/20 and being made public on tonight's
                 program have found that some of the country's most
                 popular cell phones can - depending on how they're
                 held - exceed the radiation limit.
                      20/20 reports that government testing guidelines are so
                 vague that a phone can pass the Federal Communications
                 Commission's requirements when tested in one position
                 and exceed those maximum levels when held in another
                 position.
                      The cell phone industry says every phone sold in the
                 United States meets the federal safety standard, and that
                 there is a huge margin of safety built into the standard.
                      "There isn't data to show that what is happening has a
                 health effect, Wheeler says, adding that there is no need
                 for Americans to cut back on their cell phone use.
                      Along with the test results, the 20/20 story shows how
                 users can significantly reduce their exposure to microwave
                 radiation from cell phones.
 

                 Richard Allyn and Brenda Breslauer contributed to  this report.
 
 

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