That phone could harm your child
Jan 18, 2005
CHILDREN should not use mobile phones because of continuing concerns over the possible health risks, a British expert warned last week.
By Charles Wendo
and agencies
CHILDREN should not use mobile phones because of continuing concerns over the possible health risks, a British expert warned last week.
Sir William Stewart of the UK’s National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) urged parents not to give the phones to children under the age of eight, and said those between eight and 14 should use them only when absolutely necessary.
“I don’t think we can put our hands on our hearts and say mobile phones are totally safe,†Stewart said.
A senior paediatrician in Mulago Hospital, Dr Edison Mworozi, said even before Stewart’s warning, he discouraged parents from letting their kids speak on mobile phones.
The radiations affect brain development, he said. “Even facilities like X-rays and CT scans are always adjusted and monitored when applied on children, but these phones are made for adults and you cannot adjust the radiation when giving it to a child,†he said
Scientists have yet to find proof that the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobile phones and their transmitter masts could be dangerous, but Stewart said new evidence suggested there might be possible health implications. He said there was enough uncertainty about mobile phones to adopt a “precautionary approach†– particularly when it comes to children. If electromagnetic radiation poses a risk, it will affect children more than adults because their skulls are thinner and their brains are still developing.
“If you have a teenager and you feel they can benefit in terms of security by having a mobile phone, it is a personal choice, it is a personal decision, although mobile phones have not always helped on that basis,†Stewart said. “But if mobile phones are available to three-to eight-year-olds, I can’t believe for a moment that it can be justified. Following Stewart’s report, a company that launched the UK’s first mobile phone specifically designed for children, announced it was suspending sales. Communic8 launched the MyMo five months ago, saying it was designed to help four-to eight-year-olds contact their parents in an emergency.
Stewart, a former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, first warned of the possible risks to children using mobile phones in a report in 2000, which found no substantiated evidence that emissions from handsets were harmful. His new report came to a similar conclusion: “There is no hard evidence at present that the health to the public, in general, is being affected adversely by the use of mobile phone technologies.â€
He admitted that new research carried out across Europe meant he was now “more concerned†about health risks than five years ago.
Last year, a study of 750 people by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden reported that using a mobile phone for 10 years or more could quadruple the risk of acoustic neuroma, a rare tumour on the nerve between the ear and the brain. Separate research in Germany linked emissions from mobile phone base stations to DNA damage, and possibly cancer.
A Dutch study in 2003 suggested that the new more powerful 3G phones could affect brain function, though Prof Stewart cautioned that the work has some limitations and needs to be repeated.
“All of these studies have yet to be replicated and are of varying quality, but we can’t dismiss them out of hand,†he said. “This is still a relatively new area and the divergent views show how more research is needed.â€
The NRPB report warned that, because mobile phone use is a relatively a recent phenomenon, no reliable long-term epidemiological analysis of the risks in large enough populations is available.
A World Health Organisation project called Interphone that has followed 1,000 people for the last decade will soon report its findings.
and agencies
CHILDREN should not use mobile phones because of continuing concerns over the possible health risks, a British expert warned last week.
Sir William Stewart of the UK’s National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) urged parents not to give the phones to children under the age of eight, and said those between eight and 14 should use them only when absolutely necessary.
“I don’t think we can put our hands on our hearts and say mobile phones are totally safe,†Stewart said.
A senior paediatrician in Mulago Hospital, Dr Edison Mworozi, said even before Stewart’s warning, he discouraged parents from letting their kids speak on mobile phones.
The radiations affect brain development, he said. “Even facilities like X-rays and CT scans are always adjusted and monitored when applied on children, but these phones are made for adults and you cannot adjust the radiation when giving it to a child,†he said
Scientists have yet to find proof that the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobile phones and their transmitter masts could be dangerous, but Stewart said new evidence suggested there might be possible health implications. He said there was enough uncertainty about mobile phones to adopt a “precautionary approach†– particularly when it comes to children. If electromagnetic radiation poses a risk, it will affect children more than adults because their skulls are thinner and their brains are still developing.
“If you have a teenager and you feel they can benefit in terms of security by having a mobile phone, it is a personal choice, it is a personal decision, although mobile phones have not always helped on that basis,†Stewart said. “But if mobile phones are available to three-to eight-year-olds, I can’t believe for a moment that it can be justified. Following Stewart’s report, a company that launched the UK’s first mobile phone specifically designed for children, announced it was suspending sales. Communic8 launched the MyMo five months ago, saying it was designed to help four-to eight-year-olds contact their parents in an emergency.
Stewart, a former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, first warned of the possible risks to children using mobile phones in a report in 2000, which found no substantiated evidence that emissions from handsets were harmful. His new report came to a similar conclusion: “There is no hard evidence at present that the health to the public, in general, is being affected adversely by the use of mobile phone technologies.â€
He admitted that new research carried out across Europe meant he was now “more concerned†about health risks than five years ago.
Last year, a study of 750 people by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden reported that using a mobile phone for 10 years or more could quadruple the risk of acoustic neuroma, a rare tumour on the nerve between the ear and the brain. Separate research in Germany linked emissions from mobile phone base stations to DNA damage, and possibly cancer.
A Dutch study in 2003 suggested that the new more powerful 3G phones could affect brain function, though Prof Stewart cautioned that the work has some limitations and needs to be repeated.
“All of these studies have yet to be replicated and are of varying quality, but we can’t dismiss them out of hand,†he said. “This is still a relatively new area and the divergent views show how more research is needed.â€
The NRPB report warned that, because mobile phone use is a relatively a recent phenomenon, no reliable long-term epidemiological analysis of the risks in large enough populations is available.
A World Health Organisation project called Interphone that has followed 1,000 people for the last decade will soon report its findings.