A report out this week sought to rule definitively on the safety of mobile phones, examining the extensive and growing body of work on the subject. Not surprisingly, it failed to come down firmly on one side or the other.

However, calling for yet more research, it made some interesting recommendations. I don't know whether it is of more concern that young people may be at greater risk from the electromagnetic fields given off by such phones or that children and teenagers account for one in four of all mobile phone sales in Britain.

Whichever, I can easily see why the assertion would put the wind up the mobile phone industry. This is not least because selective leaking from the report during the recent record-breaking auction in Britain for licences to operate the next generation of mobile phones gave the clear impression that the government-sponsored report would give the phones a clean bill of health.