Pregnant women, beware: Cellphones linked childhood behavioral problems
- May 19th, 2008
- 2 Comments
A new study has found links between cellphone use during pregnancy and behavioral problems in children later in life. Just the type of news the cellphone industry wants to hear, I’m sure.
The study, conducted by UCLA and a Danish university, sampled some 13,000 kids. It found that children whose mothers had used a cellphone “two or three” times a day had increased likelihoods of developing things like hyperactivity and “difficulties with conduct, emotions and relationships by the time they reached school age.” (Doesn’t that describe pretty much every kid, though?) Heaven help children who use cellphones before age 7, though, since the same study found that early use of cellphones also contributes to behavioral problems.
Here’s the best part: scientists have no idea how to explain biologically this causal relationship! It might be because women who are likely to use cellphones are busybodies and spend less time with their children, but that’s just a guess.
Enjoy your day.
Helen (Who am I?)
6 months ago
What a lovely post. I’m not entirely sure if you’re just trolling or you don’t understand what causal means.
1. Correlation is not causation. Just because they found a correlation between women using cellphones and behavioural difficulties in their children does not mean they now have proof that use of cellphones during pregnancy affects the fetus in a manner leading to behavioural difficulties. To wit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation
2. The statement, “It might be because women who are likely to use cellphones are busybodies and spend less time with their children, but that’s just a guess.” really appears to have no basis in anything but personal bitterness. There are a myriad of reasons that women who are more prone to use cellphones, say early adopters or perhaps people who crave stimulus-both classic symptoms of ADHD, might give birth to children with behavioural problems-such as ADHD.
Nate Nead (Who am I?)
6 months ago
I love these type of studies. It seems there’s probably too many lurking variables not taken into account. Also, I know a lot of people that have behavioral problems who were born before cellular phones were prevalent. What should we blame that on? Microwaves? Stove tops? Seriously.