The city of San Francisco is faced with a lawsuit just weeks after unanimously passing a law requiring retailers to post the amount of radiation emitted by cell phones.

CTIA-The Wireless Association is challenging the California city's first-of-its-kind legislation, entitled the "Cell phone right-to-know" ordinance. The challenge is based on grounds that the law misleads consumers by creating a false impression that the Federal Communications Commission's standards are insufficient, and that some phones are safer than others based on the posted radiofrequency (RF) emissions, the organization said in a statement. All cell phones on the market and their radiation emissions have been approved by the FCC.

The city passed the ordinance last month, requiring retailers to post cell phone radiation emissions information to allow consumers to make educated purchasing decisions. The ordinance points out that research from the European Union and Israel has "recognized the potential harm of long-term exposure to radiation emitted from cell phones."

But scientific bodies cannot agree on whether cell phone radiation is harmful to users of the devices.

"CTIA has filed this lawsuit to prevent consumer confusion," read a statement e-mailed to DOTmed News. "The problem with the San Francisco ordinance is not the disclosure of wireless phone SAR values -- that information is already publicly available...CTIA's objection to the ordinance is that displaying a phone's SAR value at the point-of-sale suggests to the consumer that there is a meaningful safety distinction between FCC-compliant devices with different SAR levels."