Yet while these repeated health alerts have done little to curb the mobile phones' explosion -- indeed, some 25 million people now have them -- it is, surely, time that the doubts about their safety are either upheld or dispelled.

It is all very well for the industry to insist that there is still no reliable evidence that the phones pose any threat to health. But precisely because these scares keep arising in contradiction, surely, the fullest efforts should be made to discover what the truth is.

It is true that all sorts of studies are under way internationally, but our government would do well to set up a full and urgent inquiry, free of any political or commercial influence, so that users in this country can have the best information available on the safety or otherwise of mobiles.

For how much longer can we leave the issue of whether half the population are dangerously microwaving their brains to counter-claims or, worse, indifference?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.