Physical health
Find out more about radiation, children and babies’ skulls, what children themselves think about screen use and their health, sleep disorders, hunger hormones and obesity. Plus a meta study on tumour risk and phone use.
Sleep disorders
How blue light affects kids’ sleep
This article by the Sleep Foundation includes the below about how blue light affects children:
“The general principles of light affecting melatonin production and sleep apply to both children and adults. However, children may be even more sensitive to light… A research study found that evening light exposure suppressed melatonin twice as much in children compared to adults.”
According to this 2020 article in The Guardian, “Thousands of children and teenagers in England are being admitted to hospital for sleep disorders, with admissions for conditions such as insomnia almost doubling in seven years.”
It includes reference to “excessive use of social media before bedtime and a mental health crisis engulfing young people.”
Read the article in full to find out what Vicki Dawson, the founder of the NHS Doncaster-funded Children’s Sleep Charity says of lack of sleep, childhood obesity and anxiety.
Later in this same article, Rachael Taylor, the founder of the Sleep Sanctuary, is quoted on the sleep disrupting blue light emitted from phone, tablet, computer and TV screens.
This BBC article (2017) talks about how “poor sleep in children has been linked to a greater risk of obesity, lower immunity, and mental health issues. It is also linked to lack of emotional control and poor school performance.” It also mentions the effect of blue light on melatonin, which is the hormone that makes us feel sleepy.
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In this Guardian article (2020), founder of Millpond Sleep Clinic, Mandy Gurney, said that “research shows not sleeping well also creates an imbalance in our hunger hormones, ghrelin and leptin… when we’re tired we are also more likely to make poor food choices…”
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Worth noting that, according to The Nuffield Foundation’s report Trends in Early Childhood “around one in seven children are obese and one in 20 children are severely obese when they begin primary school.”
Radiation
Children face higher health risk from cell phones
This study outlines a review published in July 15 in the Journal of Microscopy and Ultrastructure that looked at peer-reviewed cell phone exposure studies from 2009 to 2014, as well as mobile phone radiation data, government documents, manufacturers' manuals and similar.
The review found that, 'The rate of MWR (microwave radiation) absorption is higher in children than adults because their brain tissues are more absorbent, their skulls are thinner, and their relative size is smaller. Foetuses are particularly vulnerable, because MWR exposure can lead to degeneration of the protective sheath that surrounds brain neurons.'
Children and parents: media use and attitudes report 2022
Children also recognise that being attached to screens is not always beneficial. Less than a fifth felt that being online was good for their physical health (17%), compared to almost half feeling it was bad for this (48%). One in ten strongly agreed that it was bad for their physical health (10%).
“This could be the Chernobyl of the cell phone industry, cover-up and all”
This Business Wire press release is about research that shows the radiation risk from mobile phones. It details how ‘class-action law firm Fegan Scott announced it has launched an investigation regarding recently released research that questions the safety of some of the most popular and widely used cell phones.’
Adding that ‘research strongly suggests that cell phone manufacturers knew – or should have known – that the radiation levels were well above what they were claiming. “The fact that the Chicago Tribune can convene a group of experts and develop such convincing findings shows that the phone manufacturers may be intentionally hiding what they know about radiation output.”
“This could be the Chernobyl of the cell phone industry, cover-up and all,” Fegan noted.’
Yes this is alarmist, and yes it might be proved wrong, but you should know. I contacted Fegan Scott for an update on the case but they have yet to respond. This is the email address if you want to try: phoneradiation@feganscott.com
More on wireless radiation
MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute – a publisher of open access scientific journals)
We investigated whether cellular phone use was associated with increased risk of tumours using a meta-analysis of case-control studies. (2020)
It concluded, “In sum, the updated comprehensive meta-analysis of case-control studies found significant evidence linking cellular phone use to increased tumour risk, especially among cell phone users with cumulative cell phone use of 1000 or more hours in their lifetime (which corresponds to about 17 min per day over 10 years), and especially among studies that employed high quality methods. Further quality prospective studies providing higher level of evidence than case-control studies are warranted to confirm our findings.”
There is much more material on the subject of mobile phones, tablets and laptops and radiation. And of course there are plenty of studies that find no risk. Have a further dig around to make up your own mind.
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This 2021 article in a New Zealand newspaper gives a balanced view and a useful summary (2021)
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This piece by EWG (Environmental Working Group) is worth a read and cites this study.
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Another EWG (Environmental Working Group) piece very much worth reading HERE
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Read it HERE
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2012 ABC News piece - sets out why the above study is flawed.
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Watch on YouTube (2015): Dr Devra Davis, Environmental Health Trust. founder. (Read about her here.)
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Read this 2021 article on Shield Your Body: Cell Phone Effects on Sperm and The Brain: The Dirty Secret Of Cell Phone Testing
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This 2021 Environmental Health Trust article, Health Effects of Cell Phones and Wireless Radiation- Published Credible Science outlines the risks of cancer, and to reproductive and nervous systems.
Posture and breathing
Balsille & Doidge
“Body therapists tell me they are seeing 20-year-olds with the posture of 75-year-olds now, stooped, with heads way forward, from screen time.”
Thomas Hannah was the director of the Novato Insititute for Somatic Research and Training. His book, Somatics, delves deeply into the effects of postural habituation in terms of both body and mind. The “senile posture” that he warns of in his book, with rounded shoulders and pulled down rib cage (standing or sitting when looking at a phone), provokes shallow breathing and results in low oxygen intake, which in turn can result in “depression, listlessness, and loss of mental acuity.”
Similarly, this study in the National Center for Biotechnology Information
On the effect of smartphone usage time on posture and respiratory function
Found “that using a smartphone for a prolonged duration could negatively effect both posture and respiratory function.” And that, “we need to pay attention to the duration of usage, as well as posture while using smartphones.”
This 2016 study on the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, titled: “The Effect Of Smartphone Usage Time On Posture And Respiratory Function,” found that:
Prolonged smart phone usage causes faulty posture such as forward neck posture, slouched posture, or rounded shoulders. Sustained forward neck posture can cause injury to the structure of the cervical and lumbar spine, as well as ligaments. These structural problems caused by faulty posture can also lead to respiratory dysfunction.
A 2016 research article – found that Acute acquired comitant esotropia was related to excessive Smartphone use. Esotropia is a form of strabismus in which one or both eyes turns inward – more commonly known as being ‘cross eyed’.