« Kids and Cell Phones? »

Children are different

Large studies of adult cell phone users in Denmark, Sweden, and the UK were published in 2005 and 2006. These inquiries concluded that RF radiation from mobile phones is not a cause of glioma, a cancer of the brain’s supportive glial cells. But it’s not quite time to consider the controversy over. Children are not small adults, and several differences could be important in the way they are affected by ELF and RF radiation: * Hormones are at work, causing their bones, brains, and muscles to grow. Growing tissues are at greater risk of cancer, which is basically uncontrolled growth. * They have thinner bones, especially their skulls, which may allow more radiation to penetrate. * Children spend more time outdoors than adults.In late 2005, a large body of research on RF radiation from mobile telephones and ELF radiation from power lines was reviewed in several articles in a supplement to the journal Bioelectromagnetics. The scientists involved mostly indicated that there was no convincing evidence that either type of radiation was doing harm to fetuses or children, but they left the door open by identifying numerous ways that future research could be more sensitive to possible effects.

AboutKidsHealth: News: Electromagnetic radiation and cancer fears

I'm a believer that kids and cell phones don't mix.  Not until they are of driving age, for emergencies (kids and driving and cell phones is a completely different arguement and deserves a posting of its own).

It didn't occur to me, until I read my amigo Tai's, article about electromagnetic implications, that it dawned on me. Adult cell phone use has an acceptable risk associated with it.  A child's cell phone usage must be considered very differently and very carefully.  So much marketing is going into the "youth" generation. Mp3s, SMS, ring tones. So many young people using cell phones. No one really knows the implications of such a move.  10 years ago, no one anticipated that someone under the age of 18 would need or want a cell phone. No one anticipated that the cost would reduce so significantly that families could afford outfitting their offspring.

Are we doing the youth a favour, or a disservice? I suppose we won't really know, not for another 15 years or so, when the Z generation disappears under a cloud of brain tumours.

technorati tags:cell phones and children, electromagnetism, Tai Viinikka

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