Behavior problems & cell phones linked?

NEW HAVEN, Conn., (WPRI) - A new study links radiation from cell phones to behavioral problems in the offspring of pregnant mice.

The study does not say whether or not cell phone radiation may also be dangerous for pregnant women.

A professor at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Dr. Hugh Taylor, led a team of researchers who studied pregnant mice and their babies. They wanted to find out what happens to mice whose mothers were exposed during pregnancy to electro magnetic radiation from a cell phone.

We had a control (group) that had a cell phone on top of the cage that was turned off, and the experimental group had a cell phone on top of the cage that was turned on, Dr. Taylor explained.

Researchers learned that the offspring of the pregnant mice exposed to radiation developed behavioral problems. They also learned that the longer the mice were exposed to radiation, the more problems they developed.

They were more hyperactive. They were running around the cage a lot more than the mice that weren't exposed to cell phones, said Dr. Taylor.

Dr. Taylor and his team of researchers did not learn whether or not the radiation that hurt pregnant mice would hurt pregnant women.

Dr. Taylor characterized the results as a warning that we should be careful and investigate it further. It's not saying this definitely occurs in women or humans, but it may.

Yale's researchers have advised pregnant women to keep their cell phones away from their bodies, especially their abdomens, because the radiation weakens dramatically after only small distances. For example, moving a cell phone four feet away makes the radiation it emits 16 times weaker. At eight feet away, its 64 times weaker, and so on.

The researchers also want pregnant women to know that cell phones emit radiation when they're turned on, regardless of whether anyone is talking.

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Behavior problems & cell phones linked?