Adam Smith, spokesman of the East Dakota Highway patrol informed the public yesterday that hand-held radar guns will be banned due to cancer concerns.

In Sioux City, Iowa, hand-held radar guns will be banned moving forward due to suspicion that long-term exposure with a radar gun will cause cancer. The ban was ordered as a precaution while studies are conducted into the possible links between cancer and the use of such guns.

The ban comes just two months after three workman’s compensation claims. Three municipal officers in Central City say they developed cancer from using the hand-held units.

State troopers will continue to use radar units with transmitters mounted outside of their cruisers, despite losing 70 radar guns to the new ban. With this ban considered to be the first of its kind, the East Dakota Highway patrol is “erring on the side of caution until more is known about the issue” said spokesman Adam Smith.