I was moping around waiting to talk about mobile technology to an NZICA meeting recently when a speaker from
Marsh & McLennan came on, talking about future risk factors. One he mentioned was EMFs, or electromagnetic fields - the low-level radiation emitted by CRT monitors and cellphones. I thought this debate had pretty much faded away (certainly, LCD monitors have eliminated it on your desktop). So it was interesting to hear a stuffed-shirt insurance analyst telling a conservative audience that EMFs could be 'the next asbestos'. He noted that studies so far were contradictory. Most rule it out, but because any cancer caused by EMFs could gestate over decades, and PCs and cellphones are comparatively recent phenomena, no one will be able to say for sure for a while.

Certainly, the advent of 3G cellphones, which have much, much higher emissions than older generation cellphones (if still relatively tiny, and well within official health guidelines) may re-ignite this debate.

Incidentally, our man from M&M also said he'd been talking to the Australian Wheat Board. While it's an organisation that's certainly no friend of the greenies, the board does blame the widespread Aussie east coast drought of the past couple of years on global warming.

Pictured: EMF-shielding garments on display at the Computex computer show in Taiwan.