Smartphones, tablets, computers connected to Wifi, connected toys … The National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (Handles) alert on the risks associated with wireless communication waves on the children’s health, in an expert report published on July 8. Radiofrequencies could indeed impact the cognitive functions and well-being of young children.
Impaired memory, executive functions and attention
ANSES experts examined data from international scientific studies. These did not make it possible to demonstrate an effect of the waves on behavior, hearing, the development of the reproductive system or the occurrence of cancers. Nevertheless, ANSES experts conclude that “a possible effect of exposure to radiofrequencies on the well-being of children and their cognitive functions (memory, executive functions, attention)“. They also point out that the effects observed on well-being could also be linked to the use of mobile phones in itself rather than to the radio frequencies they emit. The expertise also highlighted a correlation between an intensive and inadequate use of the mobile phone by young people and an affected mental health including risky behaviors, a tendency to depression or suicidal thoughts. However, studies do not, for the moment, identify a cause and effect relationship between these factors.
An exposure to waves that begins in utero
In this context, ANSES is concerned about the increasingly early exposure of children to new wireless technologies: “Unlike previous generations, most children are now exposed to multiple sources of radio frequencies from an early age and even potentially from the developmental phase in utero“deplore the experts. In addition, for the same amount of waves, children could be more exposed than adults as a result”their small size, their morphological and anatomical specificities and the characteristics of some of their tissues“specifies ANSES.
Limit the duration and frequency of calls
To limit the risks, the Agency recommends reducing as much as possible the exposure of young children to radiofrequencies, by moderate use of the mobile phone for children using the hands-free kit, by avoiding night-time communications so as not to disturb the sleep / wake cycleand by limiting the frequency and duration of calls as much as possible.
In 2014, a study by the University of Berkeley (United States) already warned about the harmfulness of waves for children and showed that children’s brain tissue absorbed about twice as many waves as that of adults, and that children’s bone marrow was 10 times more exposed than that of adults. The Independent Research and Information Center on Non-ionizing Electromagnetic Radiation (Criirem) advises to ban the use of mobile phones before the age of 15 to limit the risks of waves on developing brains.
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