Are cell phones safe for kids?

It's grandma's 70th birthday. She lives in New Jersey and here you are in California. What do you do? Give her a call on your cell phone and then pass it around to your kids, including your 4-year-old who ends up chatting with grandma for 30 minutes.

Some researchers says this is a bad idea, especially if your preschooler is holding the phone directly to his ear. There's concern that the low-frequency electromagnetic radiation emitted by phones can increase the risk of brain cancer, and that children are especially vulnerable.

While X-rays emit high-frequency radiation that scientists know damages DNA and increases the risk of cancer, cell phones, like microwave ovens, give off a low frequency radiation that's less powerful and doesn't damage DNA. The research is inconclusive and contentious on whether this low-level radiation is dangerous.

Some studies have declared cell phones entirely safe, others have found a significant association between cell phone usage and brain tumor risk. Hundreds of experiments have been conducted in the past decade and some of these are funded by telecommunication companies, while others are sponsored by the government or nonprofits.

Last month, the World Health Organization released results of a 10-year, $25 million study that looked at cell phone usage in 13 countries. It didn't find any conclusive links between cell phone usage and brain cancer but it did suggest that high usage--30 minutes a day--might increase the risk of a certain type of brain cancer. They concluded that there are too many variables to consider to draw any conclusions, according to a recent segment on KQED's Forum.

Few studies have looked specifically at children--except a study from Sweden that used a small sample. The 2008 study found that children and teenagers are five times more likely to get brain cancer if they use mobile phones.

Scientists believe that cell phones could be of more concern for children because their brains and nervous systems are still developing. Also, their heads are smaller and their skulls thinner so radiation penetrates deeper into their brains

A handful of countries--not the United States--have made attempts to get kids off cell phones. Health ministries in Israel, Russia, Canada, and Finland have "urged restrictions on cell phone use by children," according to Harper's Magazine.

Last year, the French government outlawed all advertising of cell phones to children under 12 and the sale of any phone designed to be used by those under six amid growing fears that they may cause cancer and other diseases.

The government also introduced new limits for radiation from the phones and make it compulsory for handsets to be sold with earphones, so that users can avoid irradiating their heads and brains.

Today, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is voting on whether retailers should be required to label mobile phones with radiation emission levels.

Cell phone ownership among children has increased 68 percent in the past five years, according to Mediamark Research. Twenty percent of U.S. children ages 6 to 11 currently own a cell phone, up from 11.9 percent of children in 2005.

And so what are parents to do?

Many experts are saying that even though the research isn't definitive, parents should try to prevent their children, especially young ones, from talking on a cell phone, and when they do talk on a phone they should use a headset or the speaker setting.

Does your child use a cell phone? Does he use a headset? Are you concerned about the potential harmful affects of cell phone radiation?

source: sfgate