Mobile phone use linked to behavioural problems in children

May 20, 2008

oural-problems-in-children.html

By David Thomas

Last Updated: 12:06AM BST 19/05/2008

The children of mothers who use mobile phones while pregnant are more likely

to develop behavioural problems, new research suggests. A study of more than

13,000 children in Denmark claims to show a link between use of handheld

telephones by pregnant women and problems such as hyperactivity in their

children.

The risks are increased if the child then uses a mobile themselves before the

age of seven, according to the report to be published in the journal

Epidemiology.

The study raises renewed questions over the safety of mobile phones, which

have in the past been linked with brain cancer.

The scientists behind the research at the University of California in Los

Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Aarhus in Denmark stressed that the results

" should be interpreted with caution " and checked by further studies.

But they added: " If they are real they would have major public health

implications. "

The programme surveyed 13,159 children born in the late 1990s. Results showed

that mothers who did use handsets were 54 per cent more likely to have children

with behavioural problems. That figure increased to 80 per cent when the

children also later used the phones themselves.

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