Too Much Wireless Bad For The Brain?

I first took notice of cell phone scares when watching a television series based on former British Tory MP Alan Clark's Diaries. The then cabinet minister was convinced his terminal brain cancer (he died of a brain tumour in 1999) was down to his heavy cell phone use.

Clark described how he rose and worked the mobile phone from the back of his chauffeur driven limo as he made the hour long journey each day from Saltwood Castle in Kent to Westminster. "That's what you do," he insisted.

I still use a mobile and wireless at home. It's convenient. There are wifi hotspots and masts all over town, although most of the time I'm oblivious to them. I've no idea how much microwave radiation I am exposed to on a daily basis and even if it was damaging my health, like the proverbial boiling frog, I'm not feeling it.

But there are those doubts. Even if you dismiss the instincts of Clark and studies by pressure groups and campaigners as the rantings of eccentrics and scaremongers, it seems that even the most level-headed are questionning the reliability of industry studies. In many countries, these telecom companies are the biggest game in town. It's a mega industry. There's a lot at stake.

GQ, hardly a radical publication, in its February issue is the latest to come out with a story about the dangers of cellular phones. The accompanying picture is of a packet of cigarettes alongside a cell phone.

So is it a case of no smoke without fire?

What possible motive could campaigners have to want tighter control on cell phone use, apart from protecting our health? Are they really "New Age loonies" as has been suggested or is this another case of collective dumbness on the part of society?