An Inclusive Litany

5/17/02

Gro Harlem Brundtland, head of the World Health Organization, told a Norwegian newspaper that she gets headaches from talking on cell phones and that she requests people within twelve feet of her to turn their phones off in order not to cause her discomfort. While the WHO oversees a multimillion-dollar research program on the potential hazards of cell phone use, the head of its oversight program acknowledges there are no data indicating that cell phone use poses any health risk at all.

Writing on FoxNews.com, Steven Milloy notes that the WHO has spearheaded other large initiatives on the issues of childhood obesity and "deep vein thrombosis"—blood clots that form in the legs of a handful of long-distance air travelers. At the same time, it reports that 5,500 children (40 jumbo jets' worth) die every day worldwide from consumption of food and water contaminated with bacteria, an easily preventable problem. Two weeks prior to that alarming report, the WHO announced in a press release that it would hold an "urgent expert consultation" on a single set of findings by Swedish researchers that cooking starchy foods at high temperatures produces an allegedly cancer-causing substance called acrylamide.