textually.org: Israeli cell phone company to compensate customer who contracted cancer in his ear

March 4, 2013

Israeli cell phone company to compensate customer who contracted cancer in his ear

According to Haaretz, Partner Communications, which operates in Israel under the name Orange, will pay NIS 400,000 to a customer who contracted cancer in his ear.

The customer, who is in his 50s, sued Partner in May, claiming that intensive use of the device resulted in an aggressive lymphoma near his left ear.
The customer is an attorney who had converted the secure room – a reinforced room that doubles as a bomb shelter and is common in most new Israeli homes – into an office. He claimed that he conducted a great deal of phone calls and business from the room, where cellular reception was low. In places without good phone reception, such as elevators and secure rooms, the electromagnetic radiation from cellular phones is higher than usual.

Partner's settlement is a rare act. The company says they opted to pay the customer as a humanitarian gesture.