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A co-worker was just telling me a story that she saw on tv years ago that police officers were getting cancer on their thighs where they had placed their radar guns. Does anyone recall this story or have any verification?
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This charge has been made by several police officers and state troopers in suits against their departments and radar gun makers. As yet none have prevailed.
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bryan
The Red and the Green Stamps
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I remember a story that one traffic cop got testicular cancer and he attributed this to the fact he kept his radar gun between his legs (insert joke here) when on but not it use. I don't know if there was actually a population of cops with cancer. I've also heard about higher incidences of brain cancer in officers with radar units mounted behind their heads.
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tomc
The Red and the Green Stamps
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The radar-gun-in-the-groin incident happened in Connecticut. The cops sued anyway, I think. They were d-u-m-b s-t-u-p-i-d. The reason it happened was they didn't want to turn the guns off. I'm not sure if they got cancer or went sterile. I hope the latter; it's a good Darwinian response to keep from reproducing such as themselves.
quote: Survivors of John W. McKone Jr., a police officer of twenty seven years, recently filed a $5-Million law suite in federal court against the manufacturers of traffic radar units. McKone died on October 3, 1993, as a consequence of melanoma.
According to news reports, McKone, who served on the Montgomery County Police Department for the duration of his career, used traffic radar for approximately twelve years. According to Law Enforcement New, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, New York, the melanoma started just above McKone's left knee, which is where he allegedly held the radar unit for more than ten hours a day, four days a week.
"The lawsuit contends that McKone's exposure to low-level radiation emitted by the radar gun precipitated the cancer. McKone, a traffic officers, used the device 10 hours a day, four days a week for 12 years...." (Law Enforcement News, December 15, 1996, pg. 8).
McKone's survivors are asking for $10 Million in punitive damages. Kustom Electronics Inc., Lenexa, KA, who was named the lead defendant in the suit, says that their traffic radar units are safe to operate and no proof exists that they can cause cancer.
But "Superior court dismisses carcinogen suit against police radar manufacturer. Vedborg v. Kustom Signals, Inc. Orange Co. Super. Ct. No. 68-68-87 (1993). [1994 FP 9] " and "Wheeler v. Kustom Signals, Inc. (Mississippi Court Dismisses Radar Gun Tumor Suit By Policeman's Widow) "
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quote:In another case in California, a police officer sued the manufacturer of a hand-held traffic radar gun claiming that it caused his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Bendure v. Kustom Signals, Inc, Docket No. C-91-1173 (N.D. Ca.). The defendant argued that its product emitted microwave energy at field strengths many times lower than standards established by government agencies and, further, that there was no scientific evidence linking cancer to exposure to microwave energy at the levels involved. The jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the defendant.
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