Mobile
Phone Warning To Schoolchildren
Schoolsnet
Journalist: Grant Hodgson
November 27, 2000
Children who
use mobile phones are at risk from memory loss, sleeping disorders and other
health problems, a scientist warned today.
Dr Gerard
Hyland, of the University of Warwick, said children are particularly at risk
because their immune systems are still developing and are less robust when
coping with infections.
Recent fears
over the use of mobile phones has centred on "brain heating", but Dr
Hyland said the real risk was with low intensity radiation, called non-thermal
radiation.
Dr Hyland,
who is based in the physics department at the University of Warwick, said
children were at risk because their skulls are smaller and thinner, meaning
radiation is able to penetrate.
"Radiation
is known to effect the brain rhythms and children are particularly
vulnerable," he said.
"The
body is an electro-chemical instrument with exquisite sensitivity. The effect
of microwaves from a mobile phone is a bit like interference on a radio. It
has an impact on the stability of cells in the body.
"The
main effects are neurological, causing headaches, memory loss and sleeping
disorders."
Dr Hyland's
findings have been published in the latest issue of the medical journal The
Lancet.
He added:
"If mobile phones were a type of food, they simply would not be licensed
because there is so much uncertainty surrounding their safety."
The
government is to announce a new task force to study the possible dangers of
mobile phones.
The team,
which was set up in response to the recommendations of a Government
commissioned report by Sir William Stewart published in May, is to be given a
£7 million budget, according to BBC2's Newsnight.
It is to be
chaired by Professor Stewart and will include brain expert Professor Colin
Blakemore and the World Health Organisation's head of research Michael
Repaccoli.
When the
report was published in May the Department of Health agreed to do more
research into mobile phones.
It also
accepted the recommendation that mobile phones should be issued with leaflets
urging children under 16 not to use them excessively.
The
Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions also decided to conduct
an audit of mobile phone masts and look at the planning issues involved.
According to
Newsnight, the government has decided all masts under 15 metres will be
subject to full planning regulations.
