European experts propose cell phone ban in schools

Hello there! Does your child bring a cell phone to school? The answer is probably a ringing yes! 

Fact is, some parents give their children a cell phone as soon as they start learning how to write. Some kids learn how to text even before they learn how to write.

Well, hear this: After sifting a pile of evidence that the cell phones and wireless Internet connections have “potentially harmful” effects on humans, a Council of Europe committee put their expert heads together and ruled that immediate action should be taken to protect children from the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation emitted by wireless gadgets.

According to the Telegraph (May 14, 2011), the members of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, a very influential policy-making body, agreed that these technologies pose a health risk and should be banned from the classrooms and the schools.

Here’s more: The report also underscored the potential health risks from cordless telephones and baby monitors, which operate under the same technology. 

To quote the new report: “Non-ionizing frequencies, be they sourced from extremely low frequencies, power lines or certain high-frequency waves used in the fields of radar, telecommunications, and mobile telephony, appear to have more or less potentially harmful, non-thermal, biological effects on plants, insects, and animals, as well as the human body when exposed to levels that are below the official threshold values.”

Parents, take note: The experts say that children are the most vulnerable to emissions of electromagnetic fields. A University of Utah research shows that electromagnetic fields are likely to penetrate the brain far more deeply for children than adults. Due to their thinner skulls, smaller brains, and softer brain tissue, children are in fact much more susceptible to damage from cell phone use than adults.

Thus, the following recommendations have been put forward:

• Develop within the different ministries (education, environment and health) targeted information campaigns aimed at teachers, parents, and children to alert them to the specific risks of early, ill-considered, and prolonged use of mobiles and other devices emitting microwaves.

• Ban all mobile phones, DECT phones or WiFi or WLAN systems from classrooms and schools, as what some regional authorities, medical associations, and civil society organizations have advocated.

The committee report stresses that “it was crucial to avoid repeating the mistakes made when public health officials failed to recognize the dangers of asbestos, tobacco smoking, and lead.”

Taking this burning issue to heart, France, Germany, and India have issued recommendations limiting exposure to electromagnetic fields, like those from cell phones and other wireless technologies. Toronto’s Department of Public Health has advised teenagers and young children to limit their use of cell phones to be on the safe side.

The new European report calls for the 47 member states of the Council of Europe:

• To take all reasonable measures to reduce exposure to electromagnetic fields, especially to radio frequencies from mobile phones, and particularly the exposure to children and young people who seem to be most at risk from head tumors.

• To spearhead information and awareness-raising campaigns on the risks of potentially harmful long-term biological effects on the environment and on human health, especially targeting children, teenagers and young people of reproductive age.

• To pay particular attention to “electrosensitive” people suffering from a syndrome of intolerance to electromagnetic fields and introduce special measures to protect them, including the creation of wave-free areas not covered by the wireless network.

• To raise awareness on the potential health risks of DECT-type wireless telephones, baby monitors, and other domestic appliances which emit continuous pulse waves, if all electrical equipment is left permanently on standby, and recommend the use of wired, fixed telephones at home or, failing that, models which do not permanently emit pulse waves.

• To set preventive thresholds for levels of long-term exposure to microwaves in all indoor areas, in accordance with the precautionary principle, not exceeding 0.6 volts per meter, and in the medium term to reduce it to 0.2 volts per meter.

Of course, the modern cell phone has been around for just over three decades (it was invented by Martin Cooper, project manager at Motorola, who wanted people to be able to carry this all-important contraption anywhere anytime), and its real impact remains to be seen (or heard).

But when it comes to our priceless children and their health, why risk it? Better safe than sore and sorry.

Urgent message sent!

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