Radar gun hazards
Radar guns - hand-held units used by the law to nail speeders - have been in use since the early '60s. Now they've been accused of causing cancer. Police officers in several states have so far filed eight suits against the manufacturer, claiming that they have contracted rare forms of cancer, such as of the eyelid and the testicle, from frequent proximity to the devices. Spurred by concerns expressed by police groups, researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology are conducting what they believe to be the first research of its kind in the nation. Last month psychologist John Violanti, an expert in policy psychology and health, sent out a one-page survey to 6,000 active and retired police officers in New York State, asking them about their health and their use of radar guns. Violanti says melanoma, leukemia, and lymph node cancer may be linked to these as well as other electromagnetic devices. The Food and Drug Administration earlier this year issued a warning about radar guns, telling users not to operate them closer than 6 inches from the body. But this may not be a sufficient safeguard since the instruments can give off crisscrossing wave emissions within a police vehicle. The survey will be used to help determine if it would be safer to mount the guns, which are currently either hand-held or mounted on dashboards, outside troopers' cars.
- OSTI ID:
- 5815277
- Journal Information:
- Science (Washington, D.C.); (United States), Vol. 254:5039; ISSN 0036-8075
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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