- BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's
top radiation official said in an interview released on Monday that people,
especially children, should minimize their use of mobile phones as a health
precaution.
-
- "In general, cellphone calls should be kept as short
as possible,'' Wolfram Koenig, head of the Radiation Protection Agency,
told the Berliner Zeitung. ``Parents should keep their children away from
this technology as much as possible.''
-
- In the interview scheduled for publication on Tuesday,
he also advised car drivers to avoid using mobiles completely.
-
- Earlier this year, the U.S. cellular telephone industry
came under renewed legal attack in a series of class-action lawsuits claiming
that cellphones pose a series of health risks ranging from infections to
brain damage.
-
- Most similar previous cases have been dismissed.
-
- Studies published recently in the New England Journal
of Medicine and the American Medical Association have found no evidence
that the phones cause brain tumors in the people who use them.
-
- Koenig said there was no scientific evidence of health
risks through cellphones, but he warned of possible hidden risks through
thermal and biological effects.
-
- He said science must urgently address whether cellphones
could be linked to a series of different illnesses.
|
