HEALTH WARNING

Ministry says keep mobiles away from children

Keep mobiles away from children, Swedish study warns

James Debono
Children and teenagers are five times more likely to get brain cancer if they use mobile phones, startling new research conducted by a Swedish university claims.
The study raises fears that today’s young people may suffer an ‘epidemic’ of the disease in later life.
In their reaction to the widely publicized report the Maltese health authorities called on parents not to expose their children to mobile phone radiation.
“Although there is no conclusive evidence that the use of mobile phones is associated with an increased risk of brain tumours, the jury is still not out on this and it is prudent to recommend that children should be exposed to their radiation as little as possible,” a spokesperson for the Health Ministry told MaltaToday.
Children are considered to be more at risk because their brains and nervous systems are still developing and because – since their heads are smaller and their skulls are thinner – the radiation penetrates deeper into their brains.
The Swedish research was reported this month at the first international conference on mobile phones and health held in London.
It sprung from the analysis of data from one of the biggest studies carried out into the risk that the radiation causes cancer, headed by Professor Lennart Hardell of the University Hospital in Orebro, Sweden.
The study shows that people who started mobile phone use before the age of 20 had more than five-fold increase in glioma, a cancer of the glial cells that support the central nervous system.
Those who started using mobiles young are also five times more likely to get acoustic neuromas, benign but often disabling tumours of the auditory nerve, which usually cause deafness.
Professor Hardell believes that children under 12 should not use mobiles except in emergencies and that teenagers should use hands-free devices or headsets and concentrate on texting.
At 20 the danger diminishes because then the brain is fully developed.
Commenting on this study David Carpenter, dean of the School of Public Health at the State University of NewYork warned that “we may be facing a public health crisis in an epidemic of brain cancers as a result of mobile phone use.”
In 2000 and 2005, two official inquiries in the United Kingdom led by Sir William Stewart, a former government chief scientist, recommended the use of mobile phones by children should be “discouraged” and “minimised”.
In 2004 a 750-people study by Sweden’s Karolinska Institute suggested using a mobile phone for 10 years or more increased the risk of ear tumours by four times.
Despite these reports, the World Health Organisation is still of the opinion that there is no conclusive evidence showing that mobile phones pose any health threats.
“If individuals are concerned, they might choose to limit their own or their children’s’ exposure by limiting the length of calls, or using “hands-free” devices to keep mobile phones away from the head and body,” a WHO report says.

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