On May 7, 2025, the Swiss National Council rejected the motion by the Deputy Marionna Schlatter calling for genuine market surveillance to monitor compliance with legal radiation limits for cell phones and protect users’ health. This decision comes at a time when the Deputy has publicly denounced the Phonegate scandal, specifically citing our NGO’s revelations on the total lack of control of actual smartphone emissions in Switzerland.
Details of the vote in the National Council
In the National Council vote on Marionna Schlatter’s motion, 62 Deputies voted in favor of the text, while 130 voted against and 8 were absent or did not vote. This decision, which is difficult to justify in view of the lack of existing controls, seems above all to protect industrial interests to the detriment of public health.
The Schlatter motion, an ignored call for telephony market surveillance
Heute hat der Nationalrat meine Motion zur Einführung der Marktaufsicht (Kontrolle der Einhaltung der Strahlengrenzwerte von Handys) abgelehnt. Damit ist der Gesundheitsschutz weiterhin nicht gewährleistet. @Phonegate_Alert @aefu_ch https://t.co/NGYeqdgjTD
— Marionna Schlatter (@marionnasch) May 7, 2025
In her tweet, Marionna Schlatter recalls: “Today, the National Council rejected my motion to introduce market surveillance (monitoring compliance with cell phone radiation limits). Health protection is therefore still not guaranteed”.
The Phonegate scandal and Switzerland’s lack of control
Since 2016, the Phonegate affair has highlighted that the vast majority of phones tested in France exceeded authorized radiation thresholds, a finding that led to model withdrawals and software updates (58 smartphones, including the iPhone 12). Unlike France, Switzerland has no authority responsible for monitoring compliance with health standards for non-ionizing radiation, leaving manufacturers to self-regulate and exposing the population to uncontrolled risks.
Record profits for frequencies, zero francs for health
This policy choice is all the more cynical given that, over the 2012-2024 period alone, the Confederation cashed in on nearly 1.4 billion Swiss francs from the sale of 4G and 5G frequencies to the mobile operators Swisscom, Sunrise and Salt. By way of example, the allocation of 5G frequencies in 2019 alone brought in almost 380 million Swiss francs for the State, without any of this money being invested in protecting public health.
The Federal Council’s argument: cost, not health
When asked about the rejection of the motion, Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider justified the Federal Council’s decision in the following terms: “The Federal Council rejects the motion, as it is a fact that market surveillance of cell phones and other devices emitting non-ionizing radiation requires additional financial and human resources. Taking into account proportionality or the cost/benefit ratio, it is considered that implementing the motion would be too demanding in terms of the resources to be made available.”
Phonegate Alert’s reaction
Dr. Marc Arazi, President of Phonegate Alert, denounces:
“The cynicism of this decision is equal to the contempt shown for public health. Switzerland is cashing in hundreds of millions on the sale of frequencies, but refuses to spend a penny on protecting its citizens. We’d rather turn a blind eye to the risks than measure them.”
This is what Olivier Bodenmann, a Swiss specialist in electrosmog, also criticizes:
“In fact, the Deputies who voted against the Schlatter motion took no account of the alarming increase over twenty years in the most serious types of glioblastoma brain cancer (+230% according to Santé Publique France among 15/39 year-olds) since the rise of smartphones, and while the use of these objects has exploded, so has their radiation emissions: In fact, a smartphone emits almost non-stop because of the many applications that are always active. Under these conditions, to speak of a cost/benefit ratio is tantamount to turning a blind eye to the health issues at stake (cancers, infertility, electrohypersensitivity), for the sole benefit of manufacturers.”
Phonegate Alert will continue its commitment to Swiss citizens and parliamentarians to demand the introduction of independent, transparent monitoring of compliance with radiation standards, the only guarantee of genuine health protection.
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