Cell Phones and brain tumors? Is there a link?

Tampa - Teresa Mosley is a busy mother of three who relies on her cell phone to keep up with her kids. But she knows she's not the only one her kids are talking to. "On weekends they use it a lot because they like to get with their friends. They have a social life."

But there's a question about how much cell phone use is safe for children and whether or not the electromagnetic radiation that cell phones put off could cause brain tumors. Dr. James Orlowski is the Chief of Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Intensive Care at University Community Hospital located at 3100 East Fletcher Avenue in Tampa. He says research in Europe and Asia is still being conducted on the issue there's a reason to be cautious right now.

"Initially they did studies on animals. They exposed rats and mice to the electromagnetic radiation from cell phones and found an increased incidence of tumors especially in brain tumors." Dr. Orlowski says while you can't ethically expose people to electromagnetic radiation to test the theory researchers have tried to dig deeper. "They looked at patients newly diagnosed with brain tumors and then gave them a questionnaire that asked them about the amount of their cell phone use per day, per week, per month and they totaled this up and found that the patients with brain tumors had a much higher use of cell phones."

The doctor says parents should restrict the amount of time their kids use cell phones. Children under the age of 10 should only use them in an emergency and he recommends that they use ear pieces to cut down on the amount of electromagnetic radiation exposure near their heads.

"Using earpieces significantly reduces the risk because the radiation is somewhere else on your body. The blue tooth is probably less safe than the corded one because the blue tooth is emitting electromagnetic radiation but much less than the cell phone itself."

Parents we spoke with say they're now rethinking their kid's cell phone use and they plan to look into buying them ear pieces too. Alicia Muhammad has four kids. Their ages range from 9 years old to 18 years old. She says "It's going to be a fight a battle you know. But I'm the parent and they're the children."

Teresa Mosley says it's a wake up call for her. "But I definitely want to make sure my children are safe."

Doctor Orlowski says the potential risk could be as serious for adults as it is for children. He says it could take months or even years before researchers findings are published. Meanwhile the cell phone industry maintains that they're safe.

10 Ways to Limit Your Cell Phone Exposure

1. Do not allow children to use a cell phone, except for emergencies. The developing organs of a fetus or child are the most likely to be sensitive to any possible effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields.

2. While communicating using your cell phone, try to keep the cell phone away from the body as much as possible. The amplitude of the electromagnetic field is one fourth the strength at a distance of two inches and fifty times lower at three feet.

Whenever possible, use the speaker-phone mode or a wireless Bluetooth headset, which has less than 1/100th of the electromagnetic emission of a normal cell phone. Use of a hands-free ear piece attachment may also reduce exposures.

3. Avoid using your cell phone in places, like a bus, where you can passively expose others to your phone's electromagnetic fields.

4. Avoid carrying your cell phone on your body at all times. Do not keep it near your body at night such as under the pillow or on a bedside table, particularly if pregnant. You can also put it on "flight" or "off-line" mode, which stops electromagnetic emissions.

5. If you must carry your cell phone on you, make sure that the keypad is positioned toward your body and the back is positioned toward the outside so that the transmitted electromagnetic fields move away from your rather than through you.

6. Only use your cell phone to establish contact or for conversations lasting a few minutes, as the biological effects are directly related to the duration of exposure. For longer conversations, use a land line with a corded phone, not a cordless phone, which uses electromagnetic emitting technology similar to that of cell phones.

7. Switch sides regularly while communicating on your cell phone to spread out your exposure. Before putting your cell phone to the ear, wait until your correspondent has picked up. This limits the power of the electromagnetic field emitted near your ear and the duration of your exposure.

8. Avoid using your cell phone when the signal is weak or when moving at high speed, such as in a car or train, as this automatically increases power to a maximum as the phone repeatedly attempts to connect to a new relay antenna.

9. When possible, communicate via text messaging rather than making a call, limiting the duration of exposure and the proximity to the body.

10. Choose a device with the lowest SAR possible (SAR = Specific Absorption Rate, which is a measure of the strength of the magnetic field absorbed by the body). SAR ratings of contemporary phones by different manufacturers are available by searching for "SAR ratings cell phones" on the internet.