Get your child off the phone

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to decide whether mobile phones – or even cordless phones – are safe for your children. A recent Swedish study of 1,200 people diagnosed with malignant brain tumours in 1997-2003 analysed their mobile and cordless phone use. People who started using mobiles as teenagers, and continued to use them for ten years, were 4.9 times more likely to get malignant brain tumours. For cordless phone users over 10 years, the risk was 3.9 times. Sobering figures for people of any age.

Yet mobiles have been called the “new cuddly toys” for kids. Some countries take the risks seriously. In France, it is illegal to market mobiles to children under 12 and they can’t use them in primary schools. South Africa is going to debate a ban on children under 16 using mobile phones. Other countries, like UK, Israel and Germany, merely discourage it. Meanwhile, a new book, Disconnect, by Dr Devra Davis, claims children are more susceptible to radiation because their skulls are thinner and their brains are still developing.

This leaves parents in a difficult position. Nobody is saying for sure that mobile phones cause cancer in children. But there is enough evidence gathering to make them nervous. This then begs the question how much mobile phone use is safe for adults, given that mobiles are fast becoming the must-have accessory for just about everything – computing, banking, payments – let alone talking. The new tobacco?

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