Children 'should not use' cellphones

BY PAUL GORMAN

Children "should not use" cellphones until there is more research into possible health effects, an Australian scientist says.

Professor Bernard Stewart's comments follow the release of a major study finding no definite links between mobile-phone use and brain cancer.

The 10-year international Interphone investigation, backed by the World Health Organisation and involving researchers from 13 countries including New Zealand, has found no increased risk of tumours connected with cellphone use.

However, it said there were suggestions of a greater risk of brain cancers for some heavy users that might be on their cellphones for more than 30 minutes a day, every day, over 10 years or more.

Researchers say given the amount of cellphone use, further studies are essential.

Stewart, Cancer Council Australia's scientific adviser, said insufficient time had passed since the introduction of mobile phones to establish whether they posed a risk to children's health.

"Until there is research into this area, [the] Cancer Council recommends caution in relation to children – they should not use, or minimise their use, of mobile phones," he said.

"Anyone concerned about the harmful effects of electromagnetic energy should reduce their use of mobile phones, or employ hands-free technology."

Stewart said there was no evidence that children were at increased risk of brain cancer.

However, "we thought it was warranted as the next focus of research".

A separate study into the effects of cellphone use on children, who are believed to be more susceptible to the effects of radiation, is planned.

A senior science adviser at Christchurch's National Radiation Laboratory, Martin Gledhill, said the results of the latest study were consistent with the findings to date.

"While the full Interphone results overall do not suggest that cellphone use is associated with increased risk of brain tumours, the detailed analysis shows a small increased risk for the heaviest users, but not for anyone else," he said.

"The researchers caution against interpreting this as a cause-and-effect relationship, as there is evidence that it could have arisen from biases in the data."

The study compared cellphone users aged 30 to 59 who had newly diagnosed brain tumours with people of the same age taken from the electoral rolls.

The director of Massey University's Centre for Public Health Research, Professor Neil Pearce, said the findings were "generally reassuring". "If there had been a major increase in risk, this study would have found it."

Auckland University senior lecturer in environmental medicine and electromagnetic safety specialist, Dr David Black, said cellphones used ultra-high-frequency radiowaves well below the frequency of the spectrum "where we have concerns about the classical effects of radiation, such as X-rays or gamma rays".

The options for safe cellphone use were to continue with current practices and call for more research, change behaviours in the light of the worst-known effects on public health, or adopt a precaution while doing more studies.

"Are we going to limit the use of cellphones or limit exposure?

"We could be getting more exposure from cordless phones we use at home – we tend to use them for maybe hours at a time.

"We need to start looking at them if we are going to start talking about caution.

"The point I am leading to [is] we must give accurate information to the public and consumers," Black said.

"The history of medicine is littered with public health advice which turns out only to be partly right, and the public gets cynical about this."

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