Prenatal cell phone exposure tied to behavior

[shadron]

Prenatal cell phone exposure tied to behavior
By Anne Harding Tue Jul 29, 5:06 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children whose mothers used cell phones frequently during pregnancy and who are themselves cell phone users are more likely to have behavior problems, new research shows.

The finding "certainly shouldn't be over interpreted, but nevertheless points in a direction where further research is needed," Dr. Leeka Kheifets of the UCLA School of Public Health, who helped conduct the study, told Reuters Health. "It's a wonderful technology and people are certainly going to be using it more and more," she added. "We need to be looking into what are the potential health effects and what are ways to reduce risks should there be any."

--snip--

full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080729/tc_nm/prenatal_cell_phone_dc_1

Letting a kid use a cell phone I could *sorta* understand that there might be a problem if you can establish radio wave effects on soft tissue, but how in the world can they explain damage to a fetus while the mom is using a phone? It poisons the blood? Does she have to hold the phone to her belly?

 

[shadron]

I googled Dr. Leifets and found that while she was at the WHO she was an expert witness on the effects of power line emf on humans. It appears from the report (done by a an industrial power line promotion association) that she, along with other WHO members, advocated for study and regulation of electrical power lines in Israel. The report can be expected to be biased, of course.

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/?p=106

 

[geni]

Parents who spend a lot of time on the phone and thus give their kids phones early pay less attention to their kids?

 

[leonAzul]

Parents who encourage their children to pay more attention to a device than their immediate surroundings are asking for trouble?

 

[casebro]

Parents who can afford phones for themselves and their children are over-indulgent in other ways, giving their children expectations of...

 

[Professor Yaffle]

I'm sure I read about this some time back?

From the article linked in the OP:

Because cell phone use was so infrequent among children in the study - 30 percent of kids were using a cell phone, but just 1 percent used a cell phone for more than an hour a week - radiofrequency exposure seems unlikely to have caused any behavior problems, they say.
"Another possible explanation for the observed association might be the lack of attention given to a child by mothers who are frequent users of cell phones," the researchers suggest. They note that mothers who used cell phones frequently were of lower socio-occupational status, more likely to have mental health and psychiatric problems, and more likely to have smoked while they were pregnant.

 

[jj]

And this is controlled for people who have a genetic urge to use cell phones more exactly how?

So how is this not a self-selecting group?

Where's the causation?

 

[Dancing David]

From the story

After the researchers adjusted for factors that could influence the results, such as a mother's psychiatric problems and socioeconomic factors, children with both prenatal and postnatal cell phone exposure were 80 percent more likely to have abnormal or borderline scores on tests evaluating emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity, or problems with peers.

Wow talk about the kitchen sink approach, no clear clinical syndrome just 'borderline', how wide is that biorder and how many different test were glommed together?

Risks were higher for children exposed prenatally only, compared with those exposed only postnatally, but were lower than for children exposed at both time points.

This from an abstract here
http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:18467962

When the children of those pregnancies reached 7 years of age in 2005 and 2006, mothers were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding the current health and behavioral status of children, as well as past exposure to cell phone use. Mothers evaluated the child's behavior problems using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire.

Oh yeah that has a real high clinical validity.

Oh yeah, http://www.sdqinfo.com/b1.html

Not indicated for the use in the survey done with the mothers.