World health chief hangs up on cellphones

Monday, August 12, 2002

Oslo - World Health Organisation chief Gro Harlem Brundtland warned parents on Monday against letting their children spend too much time on mobile telephones and said their electromagnetic waves give her a headache.

Brundtland, the WHO director-general, does not own a cell phone and forbids anyone to use one in her Geneva office, saying this is to protect herself from the electromagnetic waves. "If you enter my office, you are invited by me. No one who is invited would like to give me headaches," Brundtland said at a news conference in Oslo, where she attended an international conference on cancer.

Some tests have shown higher electromagnetic waves in places where mobiles are frequently used, but research has still to prove any long-term negative effects of mobile phone usage.

"I would be cautious about letting children use mobile phones for hours every day, because we don't know enough about the damage," Brundtland said.
"The same goes for microwaves."