5 years ago... Welsh biologist loses mobile phone health scare case

11.11.98 An attempt to force mobile phone retailers and manufacturers to admit handsets are not safe collapsed in a Welsh court yesterday.

Roger Coghill, a biologist from Pontypool, put Wayne Morgan in the dock after he bought two handsets - one Philips and one Nokia - from Morgan's shop, Mobile Communications Services. He was charging the retailer under the 1987 Consumer Protection Act.

After two days of expert testimony, magistrates at Abergavenny Magistrates Court found the defendant not guilty, dismissing three charges against him and ordering Coghill to pay costs.

On day one of the trial, witness for the prosecution, Alasdair Philips produced evidence which he said proves mobile phones lead to "headaches, loss of concentration, skin tingling or burning or twitching, eye tics, poor short term memory, buzzing in the head at night and other effects".

However yesterday, Dr Alastair McKinley, head of the Non-Ionising Radiation department at the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB), denied the mobile phone industry is aware of health risks involved in using handsets.

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11.11.03 At the time of this case, Coghill told silicon.com outside the court house that he had fulfilled his moral duty. All he was after, he said, was a warning sticker on phones akin to the labels that were then found on cigarette packets, asking users to consider possible dangers.

This publication cannot say for sure that there are health problems associated with mobile devices and networks but while the industry advises against marketing directed at children and communities rally against constellations of antennae sprouting up, many will carry on asking questions.