Cell phones = death?

I was chatting with a friend the other day. I told her I wasn't getting good reception.

Her: "Your talking on a cell phone?!!!! I hope you're using one of those wireless sets."

Me: "Uh, oh."

I had stopped worrying about the whole cell phones cause brain cancer thing a while back when some pretty definitive sounding studies by people in white coats determined that there was no evidence of causation between cell phone use and brain tumors, brain cancer, or brain farts.

But now the world is abuzz with worry thanks to a memo from some guy to his staff warning them not to use their cellphones without those annoying earbud things because of the potential cancer risk. Turns out the guy, Ronald B. Herberman, is director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. Okay, he couldn't get a job at Harvard, but it's still pretty official sounding.

According to the memo: "Recently I have become aware of the growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer," Dr. Ronald Herberman said in the memorandum. "Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use."

He says that children, especially, should have their exposure to cellphones limited because their brains are still developing.

I have to admit that the last bit makes me wonder if this whole thing isn't an elaborate ruse to get his kids to stop running up his cell phone bill...