"If you enter my office, you are invited by me. No one who is invited would like to give me headaches."
Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of the World Health Organization, explaining that she believes electromagnetic waves from cell phones give her headaches and that children should avoid them. She forbids mobile phones in her Geneva office (as reported by Reuters, July 1).
"If what we know from water and animal experiments is true, it could be a very significant source of cancer in humans...It is not just another food scare."
Jorgen Schlundt, coordinator of WHO's food safety division, on the presence of the chemical acrylamide in starchy foods (as reported by AP, June 24). WHO concluded four days later that scientists "did not consider the data available to be adequate to present specific, quantitative estimates of cancer risk posed by levels of acrylamide in people's diets" and recommended no changes in the public's diet (as reported by the Chicago Tribune, June 28).