Are mobile phones safe for children to use?

International Agency for Research on Cancer has reclassified mobile phones as possibly carcinogenic

Extracts from an article by David Reid, Reporter on BBC Click. You can see it in full here

 

While many experts say there is no link between mobile phone use and cancer in adults there is still widespread uncertainty about the risks children face. 

Research into health and mobile phones has been beset with difficulties. Mobiles have been in use for a relatively short time and yet cancers can take decades to develop. 

However, most scientists seem to agree about one thing - that if mobiles are hazardous, children may be more vulnerable than the rest of us to their possible ill-effects. 

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has recently reclassified mobile phones. The UN agency has fallen short of saying that mobile phones are definitely hazardous, instead they have re-classified mobile phones as possibly carcinogenic. 

The re-classification was the result of a meeting held at the headquarters in Lyon of the world's leading scientists in the field. 

They reviewed experimental data from animal research and also the longest running research project into the use of mobile phones by brain cancer sufferers. 

"The strongest evidence really comes from the studies of cancer in humans and there was some evidence that there may be an association between the use of mobile cell-phones and certain types of brain cancer," says Dr Kurt Straif of the IARC. 

To see the full article click here