The mobile threat: Let the user decide

Burning ears, twitching eyes, headaches, tumours... if 3,000 people came to you with these symptoms and you found they all used mobile phones, what would you do?

A company called Microshield came up with these figures. It believes mobiles pose a serious threat to health, and advises users to fit radiation shields before dialling away. (Microshield makes radiation shields, by the way.)

However, high-street stores, including Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone's 240 retail outlets, are refusing to stock them. They claim there is no conclusive proof of a link between GSM phones and ill health.

The position of the mobile vendors and retailers is understandable. To admit that their products are carcinogenic would throw a multi-billion dollar industry into turmoil. Their decision is backed up by the UK National Radiological Protection Board, which states: "There is no clear scientific evidence so far" that radiation from mobile phones is hazardous.

The key words here must be 'so far'. History is littered with examples of inconclusive scientific evidence proving scary enough for people to take precautions. There is inconclusive evidence about the causes of various strains of cancer, yet precautions are still taken. The same can be said of smoking-related diseases and BSE. Yet cigarettes carry health warnings and British beef was banned.

So what's the difference with mobiles? If the handsets are safe, then it will do the vendors' and retailers' profits no harm to sell the protective shields, just in case.

Maybe Oftel chief Dave Edmunds could follow the example of John Selwyn Gummer, the Conservative Agriculture Minister who notoriously fed his daughter a hamburger to disprove fears over BSE. (Just after this grand gesture, the British beef ban was imposed.)

Until conclusive proof is found either way, the bias should be toward user choice. VDU protection shields are not required by law, but many companies use them, spurred on by anecdotal evidence of the ill-effects of radiation.

Mobile handset vendors and network operators are currently gearing up for Christmas. As they seek a wider, younger audience - handsets for teenagers is this season's trend - the call for preventative action must get louder. It's up to the high-street outlets to educate consumers - and give them a choice.