boy with phoneIf you're not already paranoid enough about what you eat, drink, and breathe, along comes another study to freak out pregnant moms. Researchers at Yale said they found that radiation from cell phones could cause behavior problems in children down the line. 

Sound familiar? Yes, it's not the first study to link behavior and prenatal exposure to cell phones. We've heard it all before, though the researchers in this latest study say, "This is the first experimental evidence that fetal exposure to radiofrequency radiation from cellular telephones does in fact affect adult behavior." They found mice that were exposed to the radiation in the womb had more symptoms of ADHD -- they were more hyperactive and anxious and had poorer memories. Eeek!

So does that mean that when we pick up the prenatal vitamins, we now really need to ditch the phones or deal with out-of-control children down the line? 

Don't go get a land line just yet ... 

Others say while the information is "provocative" mice and humans are pretty different and that (of course) more research needs to be done. Dr. F. Sessions Cole told ABC: "There's been a lot of work on this subject, and it's been pretty exhaustively demonstrated that cell phone radiation does not affect human health."

Professor Katya Rubia, a neuroscientist also from the Institute of Psychiatry, said: ''The extrapolation of the behavioral and brain effects of prenatal mobile phone exposure in mice to human ADHD and its increase in our society is alarmist and unjustified. 

Sigh. So once again we're left with something that may or may not harm the future health of our children. Even if we choose to go with the side that says it's probably not dangerous, there's always that little nagging feeling of what if? once these issues are raised. I suppose putting down one's cell phone isn't the worst thing you'd have to do, but it's really just one less thing pregnant women need to worry about.

It's great that science is researching such important topics and looking for answers. I just wish their answers were a little more scientific than subjective.

Do you/did you use a cell phone while pregnant? Will this study or any of the others change your ways?


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