He used the telephone cell phone at least two and a half hours, every day, for 13 years. And now theInail was also sentenced on appeal to pay him a professional disability pension for falling ill with acoustic neuromaa benign tumor affecting a nerve in the ear.
The sentence, delivered on November 2, concerns the case of a former technician specialized in Acciai Speciali Cogne, a man of 63 years old resident in Aosta who contacted the Turin law firm Ambrose from Commodus after Inail had rejected his claim for compensation. The lawyers Stefano Bertone, Chiara Gribaudo e Jacopo Giuntaargued the causal link between prolonged cell phone use for work reasons and the disease encountered and obtained a double positive verdict, before the court of Aosta and now the Court of Appeal. This is the second case in the world that ended in favor of a worker affected by the same disease: a few years ago, again the Turin Court of Appeal, had agreed to Roberto Romeo, a former employee of Telecom Italia, who was being assisted by the same law firm, granting him compensation for the prolonged exposure to the frequencies emitted by the mobile phone.
“Four hours a day on my cell phone for 15 years: that’s how I ruined my life”
Federica Cravero
The sentence now pronounced “is the daughter of a close scientific confrontation”Explained the lawyers,“ there have been numerous meetings and exchanges of memories between the experts of the parties ”. The two court consultants had already established that the cell phone had caused cancer “with high probability” and Inail, in 2020, had been sentenced to pay an occupational disease pension of about 350 euros per month. However, the pension fund had challenged the decision asking for new technical advice. The Court of Appeal had thus appointed the professor Roberto Albera, full professor of otolaryngology at the University of Turin, author of 400 publications who in his long experience has performed over 10 thousand operations including just under 200 for neuromas. He also confirmed thehigh probability between radiofrequency exposure and disease found by the patient.
The Turin Court of Appeal: “There is a link between cell phone use and some types of cancer”
by OTTAVIA GIUSTETTI
The sixty-three had used his cell phone always from the left earbecause the right had already been injured due to a previous trauma, with an overall calculation between 10 and 13 thousand hours, from 1995 to 2008. Operated for the tumor, he reported total deafness from that ear and also damage to the facial nerve with consequent paresis on that side of the face and a state of depression. “The conflict of interest and the quality of the studies facing each other on the subject were also addressed in the course of the case,” explained the lawyers. For the medical consultant, “the studies that support the poor correlation (between this tumor and the use of mobile phones, ed) refer to the study Intercomwhich was criticized because it also considers modest exposure to radiofrequencies from mobile phones and there are doubts about a possible conflict of interest of the authors with the manufacturers “, while” in the specific case of acoustic neuroma, the hypothesis of a possible correlation or, in any case, one of its causes, is based on studies carried out by evaluating the exposure more precisely “.
Guariniello raises the alarm
“Phones like asbestos”
at SARA MARTINENGHI
The high probability of correlation between tumor and cellular in this case was ascertained on the basis ofabsence of other possible causes and prolonged exposure to radio frequencies thus proved to be theonly risk factor for the former steel mill worker.
For the lawyers Stefano Bertone and Renato Ambrosio, who are also following five other cases of people who fell ill with neuroma or died from glioblastomas, “the greatest danger is for the public, including children: radio frequencies are perceived only with electrical detectors, unlike the exhaust of a diesel engine that is felt with the smell, or the sharp blade of a knife with touch. The Wi-Fi, the ‘soaps’, the hotspots all emit and receive radio frequencies ”. It is no coincidence that in a risk assessment document of a major telephone company, the company has expressly informed its 7000 employees that cell phones must not be “in contact with the face”, indicating the use of “wired” earphones. ”, And cordless or similar are not available for them.