Mobile phones and other wireless technologies have rapidly become central to our children’s everyday lives.
Scientists however, remain uncertain as to whether children’s developing brains are more vulnerable than adults to radio waves emitted from these devices.
SCAMP will investigate whether use of mobile phones and other wireless technologies might affect children’s neurocognitive or behavioural development.
It is the largest study in the world to date to address this research question and will shed light on current scientific uncertainties.
Study to explore whether mobile phones affect children's cognitive development
A study launching today will investigate whether the use of mobile phones and wireless technologies might affect children's cognitive development.
The Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones (SCAMP) is the largest study in the world to address this issue. It will focus on cognitive functions such as memory and attention, which continue to develop into adolescence.
Scientific evidence available to date is reassuring and shows no association between exposure to radiofrequency waves from mobile phone use and brain cancer in adults in the short term (less than 10 years of use). But the evidence available regarding long term heavy use and children’s use is limited and less clear.
– Professor Paul Elliott
Chair in Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine
Seventy percent of 11-12 year olds in the UK now own a mobile phone, rising to 90 per cent by age 14. Most research to date on mobile phones has focused on adults and risk of brain cancers. While there is no convincing evidence that radio wave exposures from mobile phones effect health, scientists remain uncertain as to whether children’s developing brains are more vulnerable than adults’ brains, due to their developing nervous system, enhanced absorption of energy in head tissue, and increased cumulative exposure over their lifetime. The latest World Health Organisation Organization (WHO) radiofrequency agenda highlights this uncertainty, ranking ‘prospective cohort studies of children and adolescents’, including neurocognitive and behavioural outcomes, as a ‘highest priority research need’.
SCAMP is an independent, three-year study commissioned by the Department of Health, on behalf of multiple funders (see Notes to editors). This study comes under the ‘Research Initiative on Health and Mobile Telecommunications (RIHMT)’ formerly the MTHR Programme. Led by researchers from Imperial College London, working with partners from Birkbeck, University of London, and others, it will follow the cognitive development of approximately 2500 year 7 (aged 11-12 years) pupils in participating schools from this September. Over 160 secondary schools in the outer London area will today receive invitations to take part. 11-12 years is the age at which the majority of children start to own a mobile phone.
Current UK health policy guidelines advise that children under 16 should be encouraged to use mobile phones for essential purposes only, where possible use a hands-free kit or text and, if calls are really necessary, to keep them short. An NHS leaflet giving this advice was produced in 2011 and that advice still stands.
Study to explore whether mobile phones affect children's cognitive development
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