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Children’s Health Defense (CHD) today filed a new federal case seeking to force the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to comply with a 2021 court order requiring the agency to explain how it determined that current radiofrequency (RF) radiation exposure limits adequately protect people and the environment.
The case, CHD et al. v. FCC, asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to issue a Writ of Mandamus directing the FCC to comply with the 2021 mandate within 90 days.
According to the petition:
“Instead of taking any steps to comply with the order, the Commission has taken significant steps to hasten nationwide buildout of wireless infrastructure, notwithstanding the serious, ongoing harm to individuals, communities, flora, and fauna that flows from these growing exposures.”
The court should also require the FCC to provide a 45-day status update on complying with the 2021 order, CHD said.
CHD also asked the court to prohibit the FCC from moving forward with initiatives aimed at speeding up the wireless infrastructure rollout until the agency complies with the court order.
Miriam Eckenfels, director of CHD’s Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) & Wireless Program, told The Defender in an email:
“People need to understand that the court held 5 (!) years ago that the FCC’s RF exposure limits are outdated, failed to consider tens of thousands of studies showing harm of RF radiation, do not protect children, and do not consider the newer and omnipresent wireless technology that is present in everyone’s life, surrounding us 24/7.”
Instead of protecting the public by complying with the 2021 court order, the FCC has spent the last five years making it easier for telecommunications companies to roll out wireless technology, Eckenfels said.
“CHD believes this is unacceptable,” she said. “We call on all decision makers, particularly the court and Congress, to reverse course and force the FCC to comply with the 2021 court order, work with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in particular, to promulgate exposure limits that are sensible, protective, and in line with many other developed nations.”
The petition included a list of studies published since 2019 that documented negative biological effects of RF radiation, including cancer, DNA damage, oxidative stress and poor sperm quality.
W. Scott McCollough, lead attorney for CHD’s historic case and author of the petition, said the court clerk confirmed today that the court received the filing, although it may be days before a case number is generated and a timestamped copy of the filing is made public.
Other petitioners in the case include the nonprofit Environmental Health Trust (EHT) and individuals who allege ongoing harm due to the FCC’s noncompliance, including Petra Brokken, David O. Carpenter and Michele Hertz.
FCC failed to consider 11,000 pages of evidence showing wireless radiation harm
CHD’s petition is the latest legal move in an ongoing battle stemming from the FCC’s 2019 decision not to update its 1996 RF exposure guidelines and to terminate a legal inquiry process to examine the scientific evidence of adverse biological effects of RF radiation.
The FCC maintained that no further inquiry into scientific evidence was necessary and that its 1996 RF exposure guidelines were sufficient to protect the public.
“The best available scientific evidence, including our consideration of the opinions provided by expert U.S. federal health agencies, supports maintaining the existing RF exposure limits,” the agency stated in November 2019.
In response, CHD and other petitioners, including the EHT, sued the FCC and filed 11,000 pages of evidence of harm from 5G and wireless technology — evidence that they alleged the FCC ignored in rendering its 2019 decision.
In 2021, after CHD and the other petitioners’ cases were consolidated into EHT et al. v. FCC, the District of Columbia Circuit sided with CHD. The ruling called the FCC’s 2019 decision “arbitrary and capricious” because it failed to consider the non-cancer evidence regarding the adverse health effects of wireless technology.
The court noted that the FCC failed to respond to approximately 200 comments on the record from people who experienced illness or injury from electromagnetic radiation sickness.
The court also said the FCC “completely failed even to acknowledge, let alone respond to, comments concerning the impact of RF radiation on the environment. … The record contains substantive evidence of potential environmental harms.”
The court sent the case back to the FCC, ordering the agency “to provide a reasoned explanation for its determination that its guidelines adequately protect against harmful effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation.”
However, the court didn’t give the agency a deadline for complying with the order.
That’s why CHD today petitioned the court, McCollough said.
CHD had to wait years before going back to federal court
McCollough said CHD had to wait a few years before asking the court to enforce the mandate because typically, the court allows agencies at least three to four years to comply with this sort of mandate.
It is unclear when the court will issue a decision on CHD’s petition for a mandamus, a special court order in which a court tells a government official it must properly fulfill its official duties or correct an abuse of discretion.
The U.S. Department of Justice calls a mandamus an “extraordinary remedy, which should only be used in exceptional circumstances of peculiar emergency or public importance.”
Attorney Risa Evans, who assisted McCollough in preparing today’s filing, said the FCC’s refusal to comply with the 2021 court order warrants this rare remedy.
“We believe the legal standard for mandamus is met, especially because the court is more apt to order an agency to act when the agency’s failure to do so threatens human health and welfare,” Evans said.
The petition also cites evidence that the FCC has allowed wireless devices into the market that don’t meet its current, outdated RF radiation exposure limits.
In 2019, the agency discovered that several Apple, Samsung, Blu and Motorola cellphone models exceeded federal RF radiation limits when held within 2 millimeters from the body, such as in a pants pocket.
Rather than going public, the FCC suppressed its discovery until EHT obtained the records in 2023 via a Freedom of Information Act request.
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FCC ‘racing ahead’ to build more cell towers
Not only has the FCC failed to comply with the 2021 court mandate, but the agency has also been “racing ahead in several different proceedings to make things worse by expanding the proliferation of towers,” McCollough said.
For instance, the FCC is pushing to make it easy for telecom companies to erect cell towers in communities without residents’ consent — even if the tower isn’t really needed to close a coverage gap in cell service.
On Sept. 9, 2025, the FCC proposed new rules aimed at “eliminating barriers to wireless deployments” by silencing local communities. The rules target communities that attempt to resist telecom companies’ attempts to build new cell towers next to homes and schools.
“Meanwhile, the harms from RF radiation to human beings and the natural environment continue unabated, and the undeniable scientific evidence that current limits are inadequate to protect health continues to accrue,” Evans said.
Related articles in The Defender
- ‘New Phase of Attack’: Children’s Health Defense Tells FCC to Protect People, or ‘Get Out of the Way’
- Children’s Health Defense Urges FCC to Drop Plan That Would Strip Communities of Local Control Over Cell Towers
- ‘Unprecedented’ Power Grab: FCC, Congress Race to Strip Local Control Over Cell Towers
- CHD Petitions FCC to ‘Quit Stalling’ on Court Order to Address Harmful Effects of Wireless Radiation
- FCC Limits for Wireless Radiation Exposure Decades Out of Date, Experts Say
- ‘Historic Win’: CHD Wins Case Against FCC on Safety Guidelines for 5G and Wireless
