As if that were not bad enough news, this month at the first international conference on mobile phones and health, Professor Lennart Hardell of the University Hospital in Orebro, Sweden, said that people who began using cell phones before the age of 20 showed a five-fold increase in glioma.

A glioma is cancer of the brain or spine that arises from the glial cells. It's also the cancer that Ted Kennedy was recently diagnosed with, and as the New York Times says, usually has a bleak prognosis.

The researchers further analyzed the data from 18 prior studies from the USA, Denmark, Finland, Sweden (5), the UK, Germany and Japan. Besides the glioma risk, youthful cell phone users were also five times more likely to get acoustic neuromas. These are benign tumors of the auditory nerve, which can cause deafness.

Hardell believes children are more at risk because their brains and nervous systems are still developing. Additionally, he believes that since children's heads are smaller and their skulls are thinner, the radiation penetrates deeper into their brains.

Hardell believes (naturally) more research needs to be done. However, I keep seeing that over and over again in terms of these studies. At this rate, if in fact there is a danger, we'll know about the time it's too late.

He also recommended that children under 12 should use cell phones only in emergencies and that teenagers should use headsets and concentrate on "texting" until the age of 20. Based on empirical evidence, this shouldn't be too hard for teens. :-)

While, of course, industry groups keep saying these alarming studies are all bunk, and cme back with competing studies of their own --- and I will admit, I certainly use a cell phone as well --- I have to admit, the human body wasn't designed with all these EMFs and radiation in mind.

Small comfort to those of us who were adults before they even invented cell phones: people who were in their twenties before using handsets were only 50% more likely to contract gliomas and just twice as likely to get acoustic neuromas.

The European Parliament recently voted by 522 to 16 for stricter limits for exposure to radiation from mobile and other devices.