Thumbnail: A study of over 13,000 women seems to show that cell phone use while pregnant could lead to behavioral problems in children. Surprising and notable is that one of the researchers had previously strongly advocated against cell phones being harmful.
Is this likely? And if it is, is it likely to have any affect? Will pregnant women stop using cell phones?
I know I’m gonna show this article to my pregnant wife tonight.
It’s kinda scary . . . You’d better get her good and drunk first.
Maybe give a cigarette or two to calm her down?
This was my first thought. But it’s hard to include something that subjective in a study. This is interesting, nonetheless. I’ll make sure not to use a cell phone if I get pregnant.
You could try heroin to…I’ve heard that is effective. In a pinch just roll her a joint…
I have to say that reading the article, it sounds like bullshit to me on first glance. First off, until the results are repeated in further studies I would take it with a grain of salt in any case. Some of the other things they mention in the article (other kinds of damage, etc) have never been proved in clinical studies before afaik…yet they are casually tossed into the article. There have been clinical studies in the past showing all manner of wild stuff…yet in the followups they weren’t repeatable.
I’d need to actually read the study and see what methodology they used and what criteria they are using to determine if children are “hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct, emotions and relationships by the time they reached school age.” That seems difficult to me to judge (seems subjective to me) an also difficult to pin on any one cause…perhaps people who use cell phones are pre-disposed to this kind of behavior either physically or through how they were raised (and thus pass these traits on through heredity or how they subsequently raise their own kids)? Who knows?
I would take one study like this with a very large grain of salt myself…especially considering the hysteria about cell phones in some quarters.
-XT
Um, what the hell? This study shows correllation between mobile phone use and behavorial problems in kids, and that’s it. Unless this study was much more medically intrusive than it sounded like, this study did not show that cell phone radiation damages unborn children. Cell phone radiation does not interact with the human body. Jeez, it’s like that whole power line EMF bullshit years back. It’s just amazing all things cells phones can cause despite not actually being able to affect you.
I’ll trust this research as far as I can throw the containing journal, which as of now, is abolutely nowhere.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s unethical and verging on idiotic to release inflammatory findings two full months before your research is published.
Absolutely! And even if there were some sort of subtle interaction, they don’t seem to understand that the study was performed with analog cell phones, which put out far higher radiation levels than modern digital cell phones. Furthermore, during the time period of this study, there was a distinct difference in socio-economic status between users and non-users of cell phones.
But magnetic fields do affect the human brain.
They appear to cause DNA damage in rats:
http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2004/6355/abstract.html
Magnetic field and melatonin:
This one contains info on “three established physical mechanisms through which” magnetic fields affect us:
http://www.inchem.org/documents/hsg/hsg/hsg027.htm#SectionNumber:2.1
Doesn’t affect sensory threshold, does affect pain threshold:
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=15780154
Abstract indicates a statistically significant result in this one:
Magnetically stimulating eye-control areas of brain:
http://jocn.mitpress.org/cgi/content/abstract/14/7/1109
The world and our bodies are complex, it’s possible there is an indirect effect from the radiation, or it’s possible the radiation is 100% safe. Clearly the EMF interacts with our bodies, so it’s possible it could cause problems.
Maybe the phone-wielding parents had simply brought their kids up to have a neurotic need for remote contact, as often exhibited in youngsters these days.
So what? What does that have to do with type of radiation used by cell phones?
OMG, we don’t know everything about EMFs, so just maybe possibly they hurt us! :rolleyes:
Raftpeople, are you aware that you are constantly and continuously being bathed by electromagnetic waves of all kinds as you read this message? They are from the power lines in your home or office, the computer you are sitting in front of, and the radio and TV signals picked up by the radio and TV across the room. Not to mention leakage from your microwave.
We know that very high doses of EMF can affect some biological processes. The question is, how much and what kind? The jury is still out on this one. Any test of one source must contend with the existence of all of the others and be able to separate and quantify both the dose and effect.
Think about that the next time you run across a report or study. Do the numbers back up the claim or are they only semi-attached figures?
According to the article they accounted for differences in economic status between cel users and non-users.
Yeah, I’ve seen these “cell phone mothers.” Mom’s yapping on the phone to her BFF and the kid’s barking for attention, “Mom, lookee! Mom! Mom! Mommy! Lookit!” …and gets utterly ignored. It’s hardly a surprised that these kids gropw up with behavioral issues.
Yep, I am aware of all that.
The jury is not out on whether magnetic fields affect some biological processes.
Read some of the links in my previous post, including the ones where they use magnetic fields to control areas of the human brain for research. If the jury was still out they would have a hard time using this method in their research.
I think you may have misunderstood the purpose of my post.
hotflungwok stated “…despite not actually being able to affect you.”
I was correcting his/her factually incorrect statement that cell phones are not able to affect you.
I wasn’t stating that the study is correct, just correcting the statement that the study is by definition not correct due to lack of a mechanism.
Actually, you failed to correct it. All you’ve shown is that in a few very specific instances, some forms of radiation can cause some effects on a human. This is already known and not what I’m arguing. When you can show that the radiation specific to cells phones causes harmful effects to human, then you can prove me wrong.
Please forgive me, I must have misunderstood you.
When you stated “…despite not actually being able to affect you.”
I thought you meant that they are not actually able to affect you.