An electronics expert has claimed that some people who
use mobile phones heavily have started to develop cancer.
Researcher Alisdair Phillips made the claim during a
legal hearing brought by scientist Roger Coghill, who is
trying to force retailers to put health warnings on mobile phones.
Mr Phillips told the court: "I have received frequent
reports from regular phone users telling of headaches,
loss of concentration, skin tingling or burning and twitching.
"The complaints can involve eye tics, short-term
memory, buzzing in the head at night and other effects
such as tiredness.
"This is the first time in human existence that people
have wandered around with radiating devices held close
to their bodies.
"We have got numbers of people that are now unable to
work who have been using mobile phones up to seven or
eight hours a day.
"A lot of people coming to me have been heavy users.
All have been City traders and British Telecom
employees who are expected to use their phones every day.
"It is too early to say, but we are starting to see
lymphomas of the neck in heavy phone users."
Mr Philips told the court: "If someone is completely
healthy and has a strong immune system then
mobile-phone use may well not give them long-term
health problems.
"Some people can smoke for forty or fifty years and not
develop cancer and yet the dangers of smoking are now
generally accepted.
"It has been repeatedly shown that a few minutes
exposure to cell phone type radiation can transform a
5% active cancer into a 95% active cancer for the
duration of the exposure and for a short time afterwards."
Mr Phillips, a consultant advisor on electromagnetic
fields, led a team of investigators examining possible
health dangers in the Kuwait telephone system.
He said: "I believe there is now adequate evidence to
insist that all mobile phone handsets should be required
to have a suitable warning label."
He said the warning label would meet the requirements
of the Consumer Protection Act.
Private prosecution
Mr Coghill, who runs an independent laboratory in
Pontpool, Gwent, is bringing a private prosecution against
a telephone shop where he bought two phones.
Mr Coghill is convinced that mobile phones pose a major
health hazard when used for more than 20 minutes at a
time.
He says the mobile phone is the biggest domestic appliance
source of radiation ever invented.
Mr Coghill has produced evidence that suggests that
radiation from mobile phones can cause headaches,
memory loss and severe damage to the immune system.
He is on record as saying: "Anyone who uses a mobile
phone for more than 20 minutes at a time needs their
head examined."
The court later heard from Dr Christopher Busby, the UK
representative on the European Committee on Radiation Risk.
Dr Busby compared the energy generated in the brain
when using a mobile phone to "a light bulb being switched on".
He said: "I am not surprised when people say they are
getting headaches when they use mobile phones if we
are talking about these levels of density."
Dr Busby was concerned that the risk of using mobile
phones was not recognised by authorities such as the
National Radiological Protection Board.
Echoes of the BSE crisis
He compared the delay in recognising the risk to the
early days of the BSE crisis when scientists said the
disease could not cross the species barrier.
"There is quite a considerable time lag involved before
these conservative bodies like the National Radiological
Protection Board say `okay we can see there is a risk
now'," Dr Busby told the hearing.
"But because there is a lag between exposure to cancer
causing agents and the manifestation of cancer this time
lag results in the death of a lot of people."
Barrister Hugo Charlton, who has been hired by Mr
Coghill to fight his case, said: "Legislation says that
goods should carry instructions or warnings.
"But at the moment the shop is doing nothing to warn
the public about any risks.
"We say that a warning against excessive use would be
reasonable in making the product safer."
Experts from the government's National Radiological
Protection Board are due to give evidence supporting the
shop.
A spokesman said: "There is no firm evidence of any
serious health effects from using mobile phones."
Magistrates at Abergavenny are due to spend two days
hearing the case.
