Study advises limiting children's use of mobile phones

IDG News Service - Children may be more vulnerable than adults to the potential health risks of using mobile phones, according to a U.K. study released Tuesday, which urged that nonessential phone use by children be discouraged.

Though no conclusive evidence currently exists that mobile phones are harmful, a cautious approach of risk management, especially in relation to children, should be taken by the government, according to the study, published by the U.K.'s National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB).

The study is a follow-up to a similar study issued four years ago. Little has changed during that time in terms of being able to verify the safety of mobile phone use on the public's health, the board said.

In May 2000, the U.K.'s Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones, also called the Stewart Report after the group's then chairman, William Stewart, singled out mobile phone use by children, the elderly and the infirm as cause for concern. The study warned that children may be more vulnerable to radio frequency radiation exposure because of their developing nervous systems, the greater absorption of energy in the tissues of the head and a longer lifetime of exposure.

The NRPB's study issued Tuesday, entitled "Mobile Phones and Health," uses similar wording to the one it follows up on.

"The Board believes that the main conclusions reached in the Stewart Report in 2000 still apply today and that a precautionary approach to the use of mobile technologies should continue to be adopted," the NRPB study said. Stewart is now chairman of the NRPB, whose members are appointed by U.K. health ministers, and he again urged that the use of mobile phones by children for nonessential calls should be discouraged.

As with the 2000 study, the NRPB didn't set guidelines for how many minutes per day would be considered safe for a child to use a mobile phone, nor did the group give its age definition of a "child."

What has changed since the 2000 study is the growth of mobile phone use. There are currently around 50 million mobile phones being used in the U.K., compared with about 25 million in 2000 and 4.5 million in 1995, according to the study. These mobile phones are supported by around 35,000 base stations, the majority of which operate under the Global System for Mobile Communications standard.

In addition, the number of children between 7 and 10 years old using a mobile phone has doubled since 2001 to one in four, according to the study.

Mobile phone networks and the base stations needed