Study: Mobile Phone Use During Pregnancy

[Karl Frederick]

It's hard to tell from the details provided, whether the relationship between a mother's cell phone use and her child's health is an associative or causal relationship. Either way, it's food for thought.

WARNING: USING A MOBILE PHONE WHILE PREGNANT CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR BABY

STUDY OF 13,000 CHILDREN EXPOSES LINK BETWEEN USE OF HANDSETS AND LATER
BEHAVIOURAL PROBLEMS

By Geoffrey Lean
The Independent
May 18, 2008

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...by-830352.html

Women who use mobile phones when pregnant are more likely to give birth to
children with behavioural problems, according to authoritative research.

A giant study, which surveyed more than 13,000 children, found that using
the handsets just two or three times a day was enough to raise the risk of
their babies developing hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct,
emotions and relationships by the time they reached school age. And it adds
that the likelihood is even greater if the children themselves used the
phones before the age of seven.

The results of the study, the first of its kind, have taken the top
scientists who conducted it by surprise. But they follow warnings against
both pregnant women and children using mobiles by the official Russian
radiation watchdog body, which believes that the peril they pose "is not
much lower than the risk to children's health from tobacco or alcohol".

The research -- at the universities of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and
Aarhus, Denmark -- is to be published in the July issue of the journal
Epidemiology and will carry particular weight because one of its authors has
been sceptical that mobile phones pose a risk to health.

UCLA's Professor Leeka Kheifets -- who serves on a key committee of the
International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, the body that
sets the guidelines for exposure to mobile phones -- wrote three and a half
years ago that the results of studies on people who used them "to date give
no consistent evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to
radiofrequency fields and any adverse health effect".

The scientists questioned the mothers of 13,159 children born in Denmark in
the late 1990s about their use of the phones in pregnancy, and their
children's use of them and behaviour up to the age of seven. As they gave
birth before mobiles became universal, about half of the mothers had used
them infrequently or not at all, enabling comparisons to be made.

They found that mothers who did use the handsets were 54 per cent more
likely to have children with behavioural problems and that the likelihood
increased with the amount of potential exposure to the radiation. And when
the children also later used the phones they were, overall, 80 per cent more
likely to suffer from difficulties with behaviour. They were 25 per cent
more at risk from emotional problems, 34 per cent more likely to suffer from
difficulties relating to their peers, 35 per cent more likely to be
hyperactive, and 49 per cent more prone to problems with conduct.

The scientists say that the results were "unexpected", and that they knew of
no biological mechanisms that could cause them. But when they tried to
explain them by accounting for other possible causes -- such as smoking
during pregnancy, family psychiatric history or socio-economic status --
they found that, far from disappearing, the association with mobile phone
use got even stronger.

They add that there might be other possible explanations that they did not
examine -- such as that mothers who used the phones frequently might pay
less attention to their children -- and stress that the results "should be
interpreted with caution" and checked by further studies. But they conclude
that "if they are real they would have major public health implications".

Professor Sam Milham, of the blue-chip Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New
York, and the University of Washington School of Public Health -- one of the
pioneers of research in the field -- said last week that he had no doubt
that the results were real. He pointed out that recent Canadian research on
pregnant rats exposed to similar radiation had found structural changes in
their offspring's brains.

The Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection says
that use of the phones by both pregnant women and children should be
"limited". It concludes that children who talk on the handsets are likely to
suffer from "disruption of memory, decline of attention, diminishing
learning and cognitive abilities, increased irritability" in the short term,
and that longer-term hazards include "depressive syndrome" and "degeneration
of the nervous structures of the brain".

[Sciguy]

I took note of this paragraph from the story on cell-phone use and hyperactive children:
"And when the children also later used the phones they were, overall, 80 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties with behaviour. They were 25 per cent more at risk from emotional problems, 34 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties relating to their peers, 35 per cent more likely to be hyperactive, and 49 per cent more prone to problems with conduct.The scientists say that the results were "unexpected", and that they knew of no biological mechanisms that could cause them. "

It seems that the conclusions being drawn stem from a cause-effect confusion. I studied the article and found nothing to rule out the obvious conclusion that children who are withdrawn or disturbed FOR WHATEVER REASON are more likely to take refuge in cell-phone use. The ability to contact distant friends during the day is a powerful attractant. We know how widespread text messaging has become among kids and teenagers. Maybe the answer is that there is no biological mechanism.

With all respect, I believe this was alluded to in the lead-in where the poster admitted that "it is hard to tell... whether the relationship ... is associative or causal." But then the conclusion of causal harm is sold hard in the article. I'm suspicious.

Sciguy

It's hard to tell from the details provided, whether the relationship between a mother's cell phone use and her child's health is an associative or causal relationship. Either way, it's food for thought.

WARNING: USING A MOBILE PHONE WHILE PREGNANT CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR BABY

STUDY OF 13,000 CHILDREN EXPOSES LINK BETWEEN USE OF HANDSETS AND LATER
BEHAVIOURAL PROBLEMS

By Geoffrey Lean
The Independent
May 18, 2008

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...by-830352.html

Women who use mobile phones when pregnant are more likely to give birth to
children with behavioural problems, according to authoritative research.

A giant study, which surveyed more than 13,000 children, found that using
the handsets just two or three times a day was enough to raise the risk of
their babies developing hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct,
emotions and relationships by the time they reached school age. And it adds
that the likelihood is even greater if the children themselves used the
phones before the age of seven.

The results of the study, the first of its kind, have taken the top
scientists who conducted it by surprise. But they follow warnings against
both pregnant women and children using mobiles by the official Russian
radiation watchdog body, which believes that the peril they pose "is not
much lower than the risk to children's health from tobacco or alcohol".

The research -- at the universities of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and
Aarhus, Denmark -- is to be published in the July issue of the journal
Epidemiology and will carry particular weight because one of its authors has
been sceptical that mobile phones pose a risk to health.

UCLA's Professor Leeka Kheifets -- who serves on a key committee of the
International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, the body that
sets the guidelines for exposure to mobile phones -- wrote three and a half
years ago that the results of studies on people who used them "to date give
no consistent evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to
radiofrequency fields and any adverse health effect".

The scientists questioned the mothers of 13,159 children born in Denmark in
the late 1990s about their use of the phones in pregnancy, and their
children's use of them and behaviour up to the age of seven. As they gave
birth before mobiles became universal, about half of the mothers had used
them infrequently or not at all, enabling comparisons to be made.

They found that mothers who did use the handsets were 54 per cent more
likely to have children with behavioural problems and that the likelihood
increased with the amount of potential exposure to the radiation. And when
the children also later used the phones they were, overall, 80 per cent more
likely to suffer from difficulties with behaviour. They were 25 per cent
more at risk from emotional problems, 34 per cent more likely to suffer from
difficulties relating to their peers, 35 per cent more likely to be
hyperactive, and 49 per cent more prone to problems with conduct.

The scientists say that the results were "unexpected", and that they knew of
no biological mechanisms that could cause them. But when they tried to
explain them by accounting for other possible causes -- such as smoking
during pregnancy, family psychiatric history or socio-economic status --
they found that, far from disappearing, the association with mobile phone
use got even stronger.

They add that there might be other possible explanations that they did not
examine -- such as that mothers who used the phones frequently might pay
less attention to their children -- and stress that the results "should be
interpreted with caution" and checked by further studies. But they conclude
that "if they are real they would have major public health implications".

Professor Sam Milham, of the blue-chip Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New
York, and the University of Washington School of Public Health -- one of the
pioneers of research in the field -- said last week that he had no doubt
that the results were real. He pointed out that recent Canadian research on
pregnant rats exposed to similar radiation had found structural changes in
their offspring's brains.

The Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection says
that use of the phones by both pregnant women and children should be
"limited". It concludes that children who talk on the handsets are likely to
suffer from "disruption of memory, decline of attention, diminishing
learning and cognitive abilities, increased irritability" in the short term,
and that longer-term hazards include "depressive syndrome" and "degeneration
of the nervous structures of the brain".