\n
According to the Center on Media and Child Health, 60 percent of children ages 10 to 14 use cell phones. Amongst high school students in the 15 to 18 age group, 85 percent pack cell phones and they aren’t afraid to use them.\u00a0\u00a0 And in case your second grader asks you for a cell phone, don’t be surprised when she reports that 22\u00a0 percent of grade schoolers 9 and younger own cell phones as well.<\/p>\n
Cell phones use radio frequency which release a small amount of electromagnetic radiation with every use.\u00a0 According to calculations published in the July 2008 issue of “Physics in Medicine and Biology” by Joe Wiart’s research group at France Telecom, “The brains of young children absorb twice as much radio frequency energy from a cell phone as those of adults.”\u00a0 Hmmm.\u00a0 The obvious question focused on the impact of cell phone use on our beloved kids’ brains.<\/p>\n
So, it was a relief when a recent study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute <\/em>(2011;103:1264-1276), reported that children and adolescents who use cell phones are NOT at an increased risk for brain tumors.\u00a0 But don’t sigh yet.\u00a0 Here’s where the story gets a little more soap opera-esque.\u00a0\u00a0 Several experts in the field of environmental medicine are disputing these findings.\u00a0 L.\u00a0Lloyd Morgan, BSc, senior research fellow at the Environmental Health Trust and coauthors Ronald Herberman, MD, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and the UPMC Cancer Center, in Pennsylvania, and Debra Davis, PhD, MPH, president of Environmental Health Trust, note that the study’s results are flawed and mislead the public. They explain that these errors should have been picked up during the peer-review process and by the journal.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the results and conclusion sections of the paper actually contradict the reported results.\u00a0 In English, there were errors in the science experiment process; so, the results don’t really count.\u00a0 They stated that the Journal of the National Cancer Institute<\/em> should have picked these errors up before publishing this article and giving a false sense of security to all of us.<\/p>\nThis next point may not be a surprise to you conspiracy theorists but, several cell phone companies provided funding for this study.\u00a0 Some of the study’s authors are known to be linked to the industry and to other research that supports the interests of the industry.\u00a0 Another expert, Joel Moskowitz, PhD, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California, Berkeley, also stated that “the results actually verify higher tumor risks for children but the findings are downplayed. They dismiss any evidence or prior evidence of increased risk and harm, and then the media plays it out as either being not conclusive evidence or no evidence.”<\/p>\n
Dr. Davis also emphasized that aside from brain tumors, other studies have linked<\/em> cell phones to serious health risks in children, including learning problems, autism, behavioral impacts, insomnia, attention disorders, and a broad array of disturbances to the developing nervous system.\u00a0 So, even though there are no studies that definitively prove that cell phones cause<\/em> health problems, there is enough evidence building that we might proceed with caution the next time we put one to our ears.\u00a0 Knowing that it can take nearly 10 years of daily electromagnetic radiation (EMR) exposure to cause a brain tumor and that we get EMR from many other modern day ‘appliances’ in our lives, are we just sitting ducks?\u00a0 About a dozen countries have taken precautionary steps, so it would “not be radical for the United States government to do so as well,” Dr. Davis said. No one is suggesting that we give up cell phones, “but there are ways to reduce the risk.”<\/p>\nCall me ‘old school’ but by their increasing use of cell phones and texting, our children are slowly losing the concept of hanging out, chatting on the front stoop or veranda, taking it easy and taking it all in… slowly, naturally and healthfully.\u00a0 I bet the full body benefits of two people chatting face-to-face, eye-to eye, heart-to-heart and exchanging robust laughter over shared experiences does so much more for the mind, body and spirit than those 2 same people will ever be able to capture sending a LOL text… and with less electromagnetic radiation!<\/p>\n
Quick tip:\u00a0 Consider using earbuds in order to get the cell phone’s EMR further away from your brain and ears.\u00a0 It can reduce your risks, free up your hands, and help prevent neck strain.\u00a0 Of course, think about any ways you can reduce excessive cell phone use and get back to sharing your positive energy… up close and personal!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cell phones are here to stay and we knew it the moment we laid hands on our first mobile communication superstar back in the early 1990s.\u00a0 Technology has come a long way from the remote control sized cell phone and getting in touch with someone never seemed so easy.\u00a0 But with everything that society considers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,8],"tags":[89,87,85,86,90,16,91,88],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everyday-health-tips","category-happy-parenting","category-just-for-kids","tag-brain-tumor","tag-cell-phone","tag-cell-phone-safety","tag-electromagnetic-radiation","tag-emr","tag-integrative-medicine","tag-journal-of-the-national-cancer-institute","tag-kids-cell-phone"],"yoast_head":"\n
Cell Phones Linked to Brain Tumors - Medicine to Move You<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/medicinetomoveyou\/2011\/09\/cell-phones-linked-to-brain-tumors.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cell Phones Linked to Brain Tumors - Medicine to Move You\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cell phones are here to stay and we knew it the moment we laid hands on our first mobile communication superstar back in the early 1990s.\u00a0 Technology has come a long way from the remote control sized cell phone and getting in touch with someone never seemed so easy.\u00a0 But with everything that society considers…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/medicinetomoveyou\/2011\/09\/cell-phones-linked-to-brain-tumors.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medicine to Move You\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-04T12:15:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-02-17T14:14:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Shilpa P. 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