Despite such scare stories, that scenario appears unlikely, many experts say that mobile phones are perfectly safe and that the electromagnetic radiation they emit is harmless.

Some recent studies have made the public nervous.

-Researchers at Sweden's National Institute for Working Life found an apparent link between mobile phone use and fatigue, headaches, and tingling and heat sensations on the ear and skin.

- Researchers at the University of Freiburg in Germany reported that mobile phone use caused a rise in blood pressure.

- Military scientists in Britain found evidence suggesting mobile phone use caused short-term memory loss and sudden confusion.

- Scientists at France's Montpellier University found that continuous exposure of chicken embryos to computer emitted low frequency radiation causedfoetal loss. But mainstream scientists take the view that none of these studies provides hard evidence that using mobile phones is unsafe.

Emission limits on phones sufficient Professor Om Gandhi of Utah University's department of electrical engineering feels regulations, at least in the United States and Britain, are sufficient to protect the public. ``In the UK the guidelines are a factor of two to three times more relaxed than the US. Ours is the most stringent regime anywhere in the world that I know,'' Gandhi said. Regulations in European Union countries vary, and can be up to 16 times more lax than US, Standards experts said.

``I don't think the UK guidelines pose a health hazard. But as people will be using these phones for an extended period of time the FCC (Federal Communications Commission, the US regulator) went with more stringent rules,'' Gandhi said.

``From the knowledge that we have at the present time, we think this level poses no health problems.'' Gandhi, who recently published areport on electro= magnetic fields, said the human brain was theoretically vulnerable to any excess energy.

``To the extent that this new energy (from mobile phones) is being deposited in the brain, obviously you want to be careful not to overload in any substantial manner,'' Gandhi said.

The newest mobile phone models radiate less energy than earlier ones, he added. Leslie Hawkins, director of the problems Centre for Occupational Health and Safety at the University of Surrey in southeast England, agrees that current evidence fails to indict the mobile phone as a health hazard, but does add a caveat. ``Microwave frequencies can get a break in the DNA; it is possible for damage at the molecular level in cells. Whether you can infer that this means a health risk is a big leap of faith.

There's no epidemiological evidence as yet that there's a health risk, although there's suspicion,'' Hawkins said. ``Work is going on showing that mobile phones' wave lengths can do cellular damage. In time it will all cometogether. But you can't say at this moment in time whether this is a health risk. The evidence isn't there yet,'' Hawkins said. British biologist Roger Coghill is less sanguine.

Coghill, who runs Coghill Research Laboratories in Pontypool, Wales, brought a private criminal action this week seeking to force manufacturers to put health warnings on mobile phones.

The court agreed to hear his case on September 2. Coghill wanted phone makers like Motorola Inc of the US, Sweden's Ericsson, Nokia Oyj of Finland and Germany's Siemens AG to concede that extended mobile phone use might endanger health. Cogill suggested a maximum use of 20 minutes.

He agreed that there was as yet no firm evidence to link the electro-magnetic fields from phones to ill health. But he believed the circumstantial evidence was strong.

``It's like John Snow in London back in 1854. Snow didn't know enough to directly link the outbreak of cholera with the proximity of the sewer to the Broad Street water pump. But he knew that if heremoved the pump handle -- no cholera,'' Coghill said. Ingrid Dickenson, who runs the Energy Medicine Practice in London, says that the pulses from electro-magnetic devices are a new kind of pollution.

``This electronic smog seems to have something to do with the pulse. This interrupts the brain's normal function, causing stress and weakening immune systems,'' Dickenson said.

Britain's National Radiological Protection Board, charged with regulating the health of mobile phones, is having none of this. ``Our position is there is no firm evidence of any serious health effects from the use of mobile phones,'' said spokesman Mike Clark.