Don't give a cell phone to your child, warns expert

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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=599728

No parent should give a child aged eight or under a mobile phone, the chairman of an official safety study said today.

Professor Sir William Stewart, chairman of the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB), said he believed that mobiles may pose a health risk, although this was not yet proven.

Recent reports from Europe raised concern over possible links between mobile use and tumours in the ear, and any health risk - if it exists - is certain to be greater for children than for adults, he said.

Prof Stewart said that no firm conclusion had been reached on the possible impact of mobile phone technology on the human body. But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "When you come to giving mobile phones to a three to eight-year-old, that can't possibly be right. "I believe that parents have a responsibility to their children not simply to throw a mobile phone at children and say 'There you go'.