DR. DAWN HARPER

CHILD MOBILE USE

DR. DAWN HARPER | CHILD MOBILE USE

DR. DAWN HARPER | CHILD MOBILE USE 2/2

More than half of all Britons now own mobile phones and many of those are our children. The benefits in terms of personal safety are obvious but I am often asked about their safety.

Previous research has shown a stress response in laboratory grown human cells when exposed to radio waves below these levels. The researchers suggest that if these changes occur in the living human, then this could cause cell damage and ultimately even cancer. But that is a big if and recent research has failed to prove any such link. The World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Reasearch on Cancer has rated mobile phones as “possibly carcinogenic”. Mobile phones have only been in widespread use for the last 20 years and we need ongoing studies to evaluate the safety of their use.

My own view is that mobile phones shouldn’t be used by children under eight – they are unlikely to be needed for safety reasons and the younger the child potentially the greater the risk. They have their place in terms of personal security for older children but my feeling is that they should be restricted to essential calls only.

All three of my children have mobiles but I do ask them to keep phone calls to a minimum (not just for health reasons!) and not to charge them up overnight on the bedside table. Until we know more, it seems reasonable to keep mobile phone calls short and to a minimum.

CHILD MOBILEUSE

Mobile phones work by emitting and receiving radio waves. We know that radio waves above a certain level have a heating effect on the body, so international guidelines are now in place to ensure that exposure is kept below that level and all phones sold in the UK meet those guidelines. You can measure how much radio wave energy your body receives from each mobile phone by its SAR value (specific absorption rate) – the lower the number the better. However, there is evidence that radio waves with ‘safe’ levels can cause changes in brain activity.

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