By Andrew Argo

CHILDREN SHOULD use mobile phones only for essential voice calls because of possible health risks from them using the devices frequently, a leading Dundee-based scientist warned yesterday.

Professor Sir William Stewart, chairman of the Health Protection Agency, said that if youngsters have to use the mobiles, they should do so for text messaging and should not hold the phones next to their heads.

The professor, who also said parents should seriously consider their responsibilities when allowing their children to have mobile phones, was speaking in advance of what is set to be a new hard-hitting report by the HPA tomorrow.

His organisation is dismayed that health warnings they issued in a report five years ago about children using mobile phones have been largely ignored, as the percentage of children with mobile phones has more than doubled in that time.

Sir William, who has not allowed his own grandchildren to use mobile phones, accepts that there is no proof that using the devices can damage people’s health.

He is adamant, however, that children need to restrict their use of the technology because their skulls are thinner than adults’ skulls and their nervous systems are still developing.

This may lead to them absorbing more radiation into the tissues of their heads than adult users from frequent phone use, and may leave them at greater risk of illness because of their longer lifetime of exposure.

Sir William, a former head of biological sciences at Dundee University and chief scientific advisor to the Cabinet Office, is chairman of the National Radiological Protection Board.

He was appointed by the Government to study mobile phone safety, and his report tomorrow is expected to call on mobile telecom companies to stop targeting children with their products, and for adults and children to take a more precautionary approach.

Speaking from his home in Dundee yesterday, Sir William said he could not divulge details of the report in advance of its publication but was willing to comment in general terms.

“I believe it is a question of choice but it is also about parental responsibility,” he stated.

“It is said that there is a security benefit from a child having a mobile phone in case that child has to make an important call, and I can’t argue with that opinion.

“There is another issue to this, and that is parental responsibility for children.

“I am totally against young children getting mobile phones, and parents have got to stand back and think very carefully about what the phones might be doing.

“There is not the evidence that mobile phones are harmful to people’s health, but we think that if there is a health risk it is likely to be exacerbated in young children because their skulls have not thickened as much as adults’ skulls.

“The use of mobile phones for text messaging has improved the situation, we add. We have recommended that young children’s use of mobile phones should be restricted, and if they must use their phones they should use them for text messaging.”

A report published recently in Sweden concluded that people who had used mobile phones for over a decade had a greater risk of developing a benign tumour, which could be serious because of its closeness to the brain tissue.

A spokesman for the five UK mobile phone networks said at the weekend that parents must weigh up the possibility of future unknown health risks with the security advantages of children carrying mobile phones.