Lawsuit victory is a first for cellphone users

Medical-Insurance
Sharesa Price thought it was just another in a series of sinus infections. Her head and eyes hurt, and she was vomiting. But then Price had a seizure, and a brain scan found something far more troubling. “When I got home, the phone was ringing. It was the doctor’s office, and they told me, `Brace yourself. Honey, you have a brain tumor.’ I was standing by the refrigerator, and I just collapsed, saying, `no, no, no, it can’t be a brain tumor,’” she recalled. After her diagnosis in 1999 and surgery to remove most of the tumor, Price started looking for answers. She became convinced that exposure to radio-frequency radiation on the job, where she programmed cell phones for new customers, had caused the tumor. In May, an administrative law judge who handles worker’s compensation claims awarded her 000 to pay her medical bills and other expenses. Price may be the first person to convince a judge that her illness was caused by radio-frequency radiation. The decision is unlikely to have widespread repercussions for the cell phone industry, however, because the settlement was small. Price’s customers at Advanced Communications Systems in northern California were doctors, firefighters, police departments and security departments for casinos, and she loved her work. She used a cell phone several hours each day, and the room in which she worked contained transmitters that emitted radio-frequency radiation, she said. Price said when she filed a workers comp claim …