Sustainable IT | Ted Samson » Apple faces lawsuit over toxins in iPhone

October 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Apple faces lawsuit over toxins in iPhone

TAGS: Apple

It's a good thing Apple put such a high price tag on its iPhone. The company is going to need the cash to cover iPhone-related legal fees.

The latest legal threat comes from The Center for Environmental Health in response to Greenpeace's report that the iPhone earphones contain "phthalates," which, according to Greenpeace, is known to cause sterility in mammals.

According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald:

"An information sheet on the Phthalate Information Centre website, produced by the American Chemistry Council, said studies found that high doses of some phthalates, when administered to pregnant rodents shortly before they gave birth, 'suppressed levels of testosterone, a male hormone key to sexual development in the male fetuses, and interfered with the development of male reproductive organs.'"

"But it also noted a newer study conducted by the Society of Toxicology found similar tests conducted on monkeys had no negative effects on the development of the male reproductive tract."

However serious a threat the substances may pose to sterility, "under California's Proposition 65 law, products that can expose consumers to phthaltes or other chemicals that are reproductive toxins or carcinogens must carry a warning label, according to the Center for Environmental Health," Macworld's Jim Dalrymple reports.

This threatened lawsuit is just one of a laundry list Apple faces. By now, you've likely read about at least a couple of the lawsuits Apple faces. To recap: In September, a New York woman for price discrimination after the company cut the price of the device last month by $200 and then issued a $100 credit to some owners.

Soon after, as reported by Computerworld, a California man filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of forces buyers to use AT&T's wireless service and for "bricking" phones that had been modified to call over other networks.

The same day, "a [separate] class-action lawsuit targeting Apple and AT&T was filed ... accusing the companies of illegally conspiring to tie iPhone customers to the telecommunications company's wireless network," as reported by Computerworld.

And, of course, before the iPhone was even released, the company faced legal action from Cisco as both laid claim to the moniker "iPhone." The two companies settled outside of court, agreeing to pursue interoperability between their respective iPhone offerings.

Posted by Ted Samson on October 15, 2007 08:25 PM

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