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“FOR anyone who uses a mobile, these are worrying times.” So began our cover story on 10 April 1999. By then, 500 million people worldwide were using mobile phones and hysteria around their effects on health was reaching a climax. There were claims that radiation from handsets cooked your brain, scrambled your thoughts and gave you cancer. New Scientist tackled the question in its inimitable fashion.
Our six-page special investigation was quick to point out that microwave radiation from phones is too weak to damage DNA, and so there is no obvious way in which it could cause cancer. But…
