JIM Watson’s letter regarding electromagnetic radiation (‘No justification for an alarmist agenda’, letters, June 17) is not very reassuring.

The idea that saturating our air waves with electromagnetic radiation will have no impact on the human body is fanciful, at best – and at worst, simply delusional.

What matters most are long-term effects, that only longitudinal research can investigate adequately; and as with tobacco smoking many years ago, we just don’t have the long-term evidence yet.

Though, according to Dr. Erica Mallery Blythe, there has been a steep incline in children’s brain cancer since wireless technology has become so pervasive – eg. wifi in schools.

There are also massive vested commercial interests involved in propagating the reassuring mantra that "there’s nothing to worry about";.

We can also be sure that the existing industry research will be biased towards ‘proving’ that these technologies are safe.

In fact, a T-Mobile study done in 2007 showed the harm this radiation does and it was suppressed.

I would far rather we took a careful, precautionary approach to these technologies, putting the onus on them to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they are safe, rather than playing Russian roulette with the nation’s health.

Gabriel Millar

Stroud