Results from a new study suggest cell phones may pose some health risks to a pregnant woman's developing baby. Before you toss out your wireless, find out exactly what those risks may be.
When you're pregnant, you try everything you can to ensure your unborn baby's health. You avoid certain activities that might be harmful to your developing child—no hot tubs, scuba diving, or alcohol. But should you add cell phones to the list?
According to a study appearing in the July 2008 edition of Epidemiology, researchers found evidence that pregnant women who used handset cell phones, which generate low levels of non-ionizing radiation, were more likely to have children with behavior issues after birth.
The study looked at responses from over 13,000 Danish women who answered questions about their cell phone use and then about their children's behavior until the age of seven. Scientists compared the behavior of children whose mothers regularly used cell phones to those who used them infrequently or not at all. Overall, researchers found that 54 percent of children were more likely to exhibit behavior problems if their mothers were more frequent cell phone users. If the children were also early cell phone users themselves, they were 80 percent more likely to have behavioral issues.
