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I bought my first cell phone when I was 34 years old. Somehow, I managed to survive the teenage years, college days, and travel without a cell phone. Of course, now I don’t go anywhere without it. I feel completely lost if I accidentally leave it at home during a simple trip to the grocery store. When my teenagers start driving a car I make sure they own a cell phone and keep it with them. I feel much safer with them on the road knowing they have a cell phone with them. Whenever, my teenage sons go away for a weekend, I make sure they take their older brother’s cell phone with him. I guess I have totally bought into the advertisers’ gimmick of convincing parents that our children are not safe without a cell phone. Advertisers want us to believe that in order to be good parents and protect our children we need to provide them with cell phones. Sometimes we adoptive parents feel like we need to go the extra mile to prove what good parents we are. We know that people are watching us and judging us so we are particularly vulnerable to this type of advertising.
However, what if the opposite is true? What if instead of protecting our children the cell phones are actually hurting them? What if the electromagnetic radiation emitted from cell phone usage is causing cancer? Research has shown that children are affected differently than adults by drugs and various exposures. The EPA while studying chemical exposures has found that physical carcinogens average nearly ten times more dangerous in young children than in adults. We know that a child’s skull is still growing therefore the protection surrounding a child’s brain is thinner. That could cause the radiation emitted from the cell phone to penetrate deeper.
A renowned neurosurgeon, Vini Gautam Khurana PhD, FRACS released the results of 14 months of research he completed on February 7, 2008 follows. His research involved the critical review of over 100 sources of recent medical and scientific literature, press reports, and Internet documents. He concluded that there is clearly a link between cell phone use and brain tumors on the same side of the head. He warns that tumors from cell phone use are now a bigger public health threat than cigarette smoking.
Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2007
Well, no one will take this seriously for about 20 years when this phone-crazy generation will be plagued with a 2000% increase in brain tumors. By then, they’ll be saying that the current phones are safe, just not the first several generations of cell phones. I think the real threat is inexperienced teenage drivers talking or (god-forbid) texting while driving. I regret getting my 4th child a cell phone, she ran up a $600 bill last month – oops, didn’t know they charged by the minute for mobile-web which she didn’t have permission to subscribe to anyway. It took half the savings she’s been hoarding working at a roller-rink for the past 8 months – Lesson Learned – we hope. Even with this experience, her face is continuously aglow from the phone screen as she texts non-stop. She was bent over at the table one day during dinner (with the phone below the table-top) and I warned her that she had better be praying down there or someone’s phone would be finding a new home. I think the next six will get those pre-paid ones after they get jobs to buy their own minutes.
I’m with Img — driving while calling or texting, yikes !! Hmm, gotta look into the pre-paid plan, as well as encourage Working around here. — Rachel
Definitely pre-paid minutes. My girl learned this after borrowing her boyfriend’s phone and racking up $400.00!! Lost the bf. I’ll never sign a contract for any of my kids. They get $50.00/mth prepaid phone time – that’s it.
I do enjoy texting my son – sure is nice reading from my son when he’s working up North!!