| Joel Moskowitz | |
| Fields: | Public health |
| Workplaces: | University of California, Berkeley |
| Alma Mater: | Rutgers University, University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Doctoral Advisors: | )--> |
| Known For: | Research into health effects of mobile phones and wireless technologies |
| Awards: | James Madison Freedom of Information Award (2018) |
| Partners: | )--> |
Joel M. Moskowitz is a researcher on the faculty of the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked on public health issues that include cell phone risk, tobacco control, and alcohol abuse. He helped the city of Berkeley, California to draft an ordinance mandating safety warnings on cell phones. In 2018, Moskowitz won the James Madison Freedom of Information Award for his work in bringing to light previously publicly unknown California Department of Public Health guidance documents about cell phone safety.
Moskowitz was educated at Rutgers University (BA in mathematics), University of California, Santa Barbara (MA and PhD in social psychology), and served as a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University in evaluation research and methodology.[1]
He is Director and Principal Investigator of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California, Berkeley.[1] Since 2009, Moskowitz has been disseminating research on wireless technology, public health and policy.[2]
Moskowitz coauthored a 2009 meta-analysis of 23 studies of mobile phone usage and risk of tumors, which concluded that studies with low bias revealed "possible evidence linking mobile phone use to an increased risk of tumors."[3] The Los Angeles Times quoted Moskowitz a few days after the publication of the meta-analysis as stating that he "went into this really dubious that anything was going on.... But when you start teasing the studies apart and doing these subgroup analyses, you do find there is reason to be concerned."[4] A few months later, Moskowitz's work was mentioned in the Huffington Post[5] by epidemiologist Devra Davis, who stated his findings concurred with other research, and that "the French are not waiting for further research on this matter, and are taking steps based on the notion that it is better to be safe than sorry",[5] and that she and Moskowitz and "experts from a number of countries"[5] agreed with the French approach.Moskowitz also wrote an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle stating that nine nations had issued precautionary warnings about mobile phones, and arguing that "it is time for our government to require health warnings and publicize simple steps to reduce the health risks of cell phone use".[6]
In 2015, the city of Berkeley, California, passed a "Right to Know" law that mandated electronics retailers to warn customers about cellphone hazards. Moskowitz had been involved in creating the law and had testified in its support, and his views were covered in Mother Jones[7] and CNN.[8] Moskowitz described the law as "a crack in the wall of denial.... Look at what happened in 1977 with Berkeley’s smoking law: Things looked pretty bleak, but that led to a national movement."[7] CNN reported that Moskowitz was involved in creating the new mobile phone law, quoting him as stating that the new law's information disclosure requirement went beyond previous regulations by "stating that children and anyone carrying their phone in a pocket or bra could be at increased risk of radiation exposure."[8]
In 2016, Moskowitz sued the State of California to force disclosure of mobile phone safety guidelines that it had prepared, but never released. Moskowitz's requests for copies of the guidelines had been repeatedly denied in 2014. The two-page guidelines included statements that the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emitted by mobile phones "can pass deeper into a child’s brain than an adult’s," and that "The brain is still developing through the teen years, which may make children and teens more sensitive to EMF exposure."[9]
The California Department of Public Health released copies of the guidelines on March 2, 2017, after a Sacramento Superior Court judge indicated she would order their disclosure, and after the state was told by the San Francisco Chronicle that it was publishing news coverage of the case.[9] Stanton Glantz, a prominent researcher on the health effects and control of tobacco, described the history of Moskowitz's legal fight on his blog, noting that the presiding Superior Court Judge Shellyanne Chang tentatively "overruled eight of the nine objections submitted by the state,"[10] and directed release of the guidance document. But