According to a groundbreaking study published this week in the Journal of The National Cancer Institute, kids who use cell phones aren't at a greater risk of developing brain cancer.
With the increase in cell phone use in recent years, it was thought that kids, with immature nervous systems and smaller head circumference, were more susceptible to developing brain tumours.
Conducted between 2004 and 2008 on kids from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, the study focused on 352 brain cancer patients, and 646 control subjects.
Martin Röösli, Ph.D, of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland, and his colleagues examined the medical records of 7-19 year olds with brain tumours, consulted data from phone network providers, and then questioned the kids regarding their cell phone use.
Although there has been no increase in the incidence of brain cancer in the past 20 years, Devra Davis, PhD, MPH, President of Environmental Health Trust, believes this latest study is misleading.
"Brain tumours can take ten years to form and young children certainly have not been heavy cell phone users for very long," says Davis. "There has been a quadrupling of cell phone use in the past few years that this study could not possibly capture.”
By downplaying the impact of cell phone use on kids' health, Davis claims the study has done a "profound disservice" to the public.
"If you asked whether people who had smoked only four years had an increased lung cancer risk, you would come up empty-handed."
Davis stressed that other health risks associated with cell phone use -- from behavioural and learning difficulties to insomnia and attention disorders -- should not be discounted.
But before you go and pitch your child's iPhone out the window, consider an alternative means of holding a cell, such as an ear piece or speakerphone.
Carcinogens aside, perhaps the single biggest risk associated with cells is driving while on the phone. But that's a whole other can of worms.
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