Using Cell Phones While Pregnant May Harm Baby
A new study has linked pregnant mothers’ cell phone usage to the birth of children with behavioral problems.
Overall, 13,159 children were observed in the unprecedented study. Researchers found that mothers who used cell phones at least two or three times each day brought increased risk of developing hyperactivity to their children.
Difficulties with conduct, emotions and relationships were also noted among children by the time they reached school age.
Researchers from the universities of California Los Angeles and Aarhus, Denmark were stunned at the results of the study, which will be published in July’s issue of the journal Epidemiology.
One researcher involved with the study has been skeptical about the potential health dangers of cell phones.
UCLA’s professor Leeka Kheifets serves on a key committee of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection. Three years ago, Kheifets wrote that the results of studies on people who who used cell phones "to date give no consistent evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to radiofrequency fields and any adverse health effect."
However, the official Russian radiation watchdog body believes that the peril they pose "is not much lower than the risk to children’s health from tobacco or alcohol".
In the late 1990s, researchers questioned mothers in Denmark as to the extent of their cell phone use during pregnancy as well as their children’s use of them and their behavior up to the age of seven.
About half of the mothers involved reported infrequent use of cell phones, which allowed scientists to make comparisons between participants.
Scientists said they found no biological reason for the results. But when they tried to explain them by accounting for other possible causes ““ such as smoking during pregnancy, family psychiatric history or socio-economic status ““ they found that the association with mobile phone use got even stronger.
However, scientists acknowledge that other factors may have gone overlooked by the team, and stress that the results "should be interpreted with caution" and checked by further studies. But they conclude that "if they are real they would have major public health implications".
The Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection says that use of the phones by both pregnant women and children should be "limited," adding that children who use cell phones are more likely to suffer from "disruption of memory, decline of attention, diminishing learning and cognitive abilities, increased irritability" in the short term, and that longer-term hazards include "depressive syndrome" and "degeneration of the nervous structures of the brain".
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