Toronto's public health department recommends kids limit mobile use
by Chris Ziegler 
posted Jul 19th 2008 at 10:42PM
In case it wasn't already obvious that kids under the age of eight should be using cellphones strictly for emergencies, here's another reason: Toronto's public health department says so. In what might be a first in all of Canada, the agency is officially laying down recommendations that tykes be restricted to emergency calls and teens talk on their phones for no more than ten minutes at a time (good luck with that one) due to growing evidence that prolonged use could lead to brain tumors and other health-related unpleasantness later in life. Moving up the governmental food chain, Health Canada still officially recommends no restrictions, so the endless confusion over cellphone safety continues as usual.[Thanks, Thierry]
Filed under: Studies
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kelvin @ Jul 19th 2008 11:04PM
its called bluetooth headsets? get with the trends!
Joseph Singer @ Jul 20th 2008 1:54PM
Why is it that this thing about brain tumors keeps getting trotted out yet there's yet to be any proof that it does or could happen to someone who uses a mobile phone?
Fred @ Jul 21st 2008 8:58PM
Joseph: because micro-waves have been related to cancer in various serious study, and that cellphones use them. Read about it !
sunshine @ Jul 20th 2008 3:01PM
I don't understand why people give an 8 yr old a phone anyway. But thats just my opinion.
Workin Man @ Jul 20th 2008 6:29PM
Because then you can track them instead of parenting using one of the many location based services.
Joe Pollicino @ Jul 20th 2008 5:50PM
cancer ftw
pheer6224 @ Jul 20th 2008 11:00PM
If phones cause cancer, then the WHOLE DAMN WORLD would have it by now.
Montusama @ Jul 21st 2008 12:46AM
Well on my phone the antenna is at the bottom part of it where the microphone is...so does that mean i'll get cancer of the jaw?
What about texting? :P
kookoobirdz @ Jul 21st 2008 9:43AM
The studies about cell phones and cancer come out periodically and few of them have shown any connection. Those that have shown something have been questioned by scientific community for their methods, which is the kind of scrutiny that accompanies any and every study that comes out about cancer. The American Cancer Society stays on top of this issue, so you can check in with them periodically if you wonder what the current state of the science is at any point.
To an earlier commenter's point, what people worry about is long term exposure, as in decades of use. Most of us haven't been using cell phones regularly for more than about 10 years or so, and most studies have only occurred in recent years. So there may yet be trends that appear over time, but so far there's no scientifically supportable cause for concern.
kookoobirdz @ Jul 24th 2008 10:55AM
Update a few days later. I've been seeing articles like this back and forth for years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7523109.stm