With the phones becoming smarter and more use-friendly (Yes, I have now become an Iphone 4 fanatic); more and more people are using iphones. Heck, they can be together and all are using these iphones at the same table. Apps for photographs, apps for finding out stuff, apps for teacking people's movements or spying on people.... the usage of these phones are now practially an extension of anyone.
Try taking a phone or confiscate them from those young teenagers and watch their reactions: Some will cry, howl , weep, bang their heads against the walls, threaten...and these reactions are also from parents themselves.
As usual, I try applying my text analysis skills onto the article (in a desperate bid to convince myself that things are not as bad as they seem):
Study links cellphones to child misbehavior
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
"WASHINGTON - Researchers studying the health effects of cellphones say they have found evidence that when pregnant women use them regularly, their children are more likely to have behavioral problems. The study, sure to renew controversy over the safety of mobile telephones, does not demonstrate that cellphone use causes the behavioral problems and does not suggest a possible way that they could. But the researchers say their findings are worth checking out."
Actually, the first few sentences have already made me confused. It's either the writing of this article or this is exactly how the report was given out. They said that they found evidence (which means that it can be proven) and by putting a disclaimer that the children are more likely to behave weirdly. Ok, Fair enough. Since we know that this article has been debated about before, I am quite surprise that the evidence does not show or suggest that usage of cellphones can cause behavioural problems. Huh? Then what evidence were they talking about in the first place?
""It is hard to understand how such low exposures could be influential," Dr. Leeka Kheifets, an epidemiologist at the University of California Los Angeles who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
"It is just something that needs to be pursued."
Kheifets and her team looked at data from 28,000 7-year-olds and their mothers who took part in a large Danish study that has been tracking 100,000 women who were pregnant between 1996 and 2002.
The mothers of about 3 percent of the children said they had borderline behavioral problems, and 3 percent showed abnormal behavior, such as obedience or emotional issues."
Ok, so based on their information stated; out of 100,000 women that they started off with earlier, they have targeted 28,000 of them who have children of 7 years of age. 3% of 28,000 women means about 840 children. So from here, we can gather that 1,680 children have emotional or obedience issues.
"The children whose mothers used cellphones while pregnant and who also used the phones themselves were 50 percent more likely to have behavioral problems, the researchers reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Children whose mothers used the phones but who did not themselves use mobile phones were 40 percent more likely to have behavioral problems, they found. They found the children were no more likely to have epilepsy or delays in development."
Seriously, I really wonder how did they word those questions in the questionnaire? Is there a standardization for this? Did they go down to observe these children or did they base their results on the 28,000 different mothers' individual definition of a behaviourial problem? Everyone has different standards. Some mothers are the extremely controlling type and anything that a child does wrongly may rub her up the wrong way. There are some mothers who believe in playful parenting and so believes that every mistake is a lesson learnt.
"About 5 billion mobile phones are in use worldwide. The World Health Organization, the American Cancer Society and the National Institutes of Health have found no evidence that cellphone use can damage health."
Phew! (For the moment.)
INCONCLUSIVE STUDIES
Last May, experts who studied 13,000 cellphone users over 10 years hoping to find out whether they cause brain tumors found no clear answer.
International researchers launched the biggest study to date into mobile phones and health in April.
Kheifets tried to account for other possible causes, such as whether women who used cellphones were different from women who did not, especially during the time of their pregnancies when cellphone use was less common than it is now.
"We looked at social status, we looked at the sex of the child, we looked at the mother's history of behavioral problems (ADHD)?, we looked at the mother's age and stress during pregnancy and whether the child was breastfed or not," she said.
"One thought was that it was it not cellphone use but mothers' inattention that led to behavior problems. While it was important, it didn't explain the association that we found."
I'm not surprised that the usage of cellphones is more common nowadays than last time. In the past, people would clap their hands and be awed in amazement that you are able to multi-task. Now, you ARE supposed to be able to multi-task. This has already become a basic requirement! In the past, cellphones were not common but with computers becoming smarter and more wired; they have become a tool necessary to be on top of things in order to multi-task!
Although they have taken good criteria and conditions to research on in their study, I am wondering about this sentence of "mother's inattention that led to behaviourial problems". Do they mean attachment parenting? When was the time period where they start their observations or questions? From infancy? From toddlerhood? Only when the kids are six years old or so? Do they mean working mothers? Unless they state the exact questions or criteria that they look out for (of course they won't), we will never know what exactly do they mean when they state that.
Nonetheless, some experts questioned the findings.
"I am skeptical of these results, even though they will get a lot of publicity," said David Spiegelhalter, a professor of Biostatistics at Britain's University of Cambridge.
Oh course they will, everyone I know or seen in Singapore, regardless of social status, has a cellphone though I can't comment about other countries.
"The authors suggest that precautionary measures may be warranted because they have 'virtually no cost', but they ignore the cost of giving intrusive health advice based on inadequate science."
I'm just curious. There are many people using studies to quote and try to back up their findings. Yet there is also a growing number who starts to believe that these findings may be falsified as they try to pass off as science. Why? Because Science is now a major marketing tool. People are getting more educated and although their expertise is not majorly science; they do know a little based on the education they have or read up on. And science that is not clearly presented has been used, more often than once, plays on the conciousness of these people who often wants to have things better for themselves. By saying cellphones post a risk, a huge market share for cellphones will be affected rather badly.
Sad but true, the only way if we ever know that such things are real is that there have to be more long term studies that seem to replicate the same results. However, if you are really worried in the mean time; you can always take precautionary measures first.
Experts at the U.S. National Institutes of Health had no immediate comment.
I can comment. No one will quote me in the newspapers.
John Walls of the mobile telephone industry group CTIA noted that other studies have failed to show a health risk from cellphones. "We just don't comment on any specific studies because we don't have any expertise, frankly," Walls said in a telephone interview.
Got to love this guy's honesty.
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