Norm Sandler is dead at the age of 53. He was found in his Washington, DC, apartment last Monday; the cause has not yet been determined. Until recently, Sandler had been Motorola's principal spokesman on the cell phone health issue. He had previously worked for UPI and Powell Tate, a Washington PR firm.
For years, Sandler was a fixture on the RF conference circuit. He is probably best known to this community as the author of the Lai-Singh "war-gaming" memo. The December 31, 1994 memo to Michael Kehs of Burson-Marsteller, another DC PR shop, reviewed talking points to prepare for press inquiries about new experimental evidence suggesting that microwaves could be genotoxic (see MWN, J/F97, p.13). Henry Lai and N.P. Singh at the University of Washington, Seattle, had shown that 2450 MHz radiation caused DNA breaks (MWN, N/D94, p.1). The memo gained wide notoriety as it revealed the behind-the-scenes corporate maneuvering to manage the news, as well as the close coordination between Motorola, CTIA and George Carlo's health effects research program.
Sandler's roommate from his days at MIT has posted an obituary on his Web site. (See also this obit.)
