Is your cell phone a death machine?

by William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

The studies are starting to add up, and they all point in the same direction: Cell phones emit harmful radiation that can cause cancer and infertility. And we still have no idea what these things will do to all the kids now growing up with one practically implanted in their ears.

Now, an environmental group is calling on the feds to do a better job of regulating the amount of radiation leaking out of these things, and for better labels on the packaging spelling out just how much you'll be exposed to.

It's funny how the government will use questionable science to label and ban cigarettes, yet run from real research on cell phones. But since you won't get that data from the government or the phone companies just yet, this organization -- the Environmental Working Group -- has launched a website with data on more than 1,000 phones.

You usually won't find me siding with environmentalists. It's not because I don't love the environment, but because most of these groups use lies, exaggeration and bullying to forward a radical left-wing Luddite agenda that has nothing to do with the environment or health.

But the Environmental Working Group has done some quality work in the past, helping to expose the lies about bottled water and campaigning against many of the toxic chemicals that have found their way into our homes. They've earned the right to at least be heard, and in this case I think they're on to something -- even if the jury is still out on just how bad it is.

I've never liked cell phones to begin with, but my reasoning at first had more to do with sanity than health. If you've ever had to sit next to one of these yammering fools, forced to listen in on every detail of their dreary lives, you know what I'm talking about.

But over the years, cell phones have been linked to everything from tumors to infertility -- and the body of evidence is starting to resemble a bloody crime scene with prints and DNA everywhere.

These things are bad news, folks. If you have one, use it sparingly -- in emergencies only. Keep your kids off them (they don't need them anyway), and if you hope to have any more children, keep these phones just as far from your baby-making equipment, too.

Keeping the phone away from MY equipment,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.