A moral panic

America's top doctor wants smoking-style warning labels for social media platforms.

- PETER GRIFFIN

More than a decade ago, a unit of the World Health Organisation classified the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields emitted by mobile phones as "possibly carcinogenic to humans".

I groaned. At the time, I was running a unit of the Royal Society of New Zealand called the Science Media Centre, tasked with combating the spread of pseudoscience and misinformation.

The classification was pounced on by a vocal group of activists who believed mobile phone use is responsible for brain tumours. That technical classification, which also applies to artificial sweetener aspartame, pickled vegetables and coffee, meant only that there was insufficient evidence linking mobile phone use to cancer. But it helped feed an anti-mobile movement that led to applications for new cell sites being held up and existing sites being vandalised.