He nailed the tobacco giants - now he's turned on the telcos

The lawsuit alleges that radiation from mobile phones has the "potential for resulting adverse health effects", according to a press release from Angelos's office. They are not alleging that specific health problems have actually occurred yet.

Filed yesterday, the suit also claims that headsets could "significantly reduce or eliminate" the radiation hazard - so Angelos and his team are demanding a free headset for every mobile user in the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.

The suit names three American mobile phone companies, Nextel, Verizon and PCS, as well as handset manufacturers Ericsson, Matsushita (aka Panasonic), Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Philips, Sony, Sanyo, and Samsung. AT&T and Qualcomm are also named.

The mobile phone industry has always maintained that normal usage of a mobile phone is completely safe, but scientific evidence has often been contradictory.

Ironically, some studies, including a November 2000 report from the UK Consumer Association, have suggested that using a headset actually increases the levels of radiation received in the brain.

The action is not quite as spectacular as some of Angelos's previous cases. The Baltimore lawyer is best known for winning $4.2bn damages for the State of Maryland from tobacco companies. He is now so rich that he was able to buy the Baltimore Orioles baseball team.

Angelos is also working on the case of a Baltimore lawyer who is suing the wireless industry for giving him a brain tumour, according to Reuters.