Cell phone use in pregnancy may be linked to behavior trouble in children

By JIM SHELTON Journal Register News Service news@morningjournal.com Twitter: @morningjournal

Hugh Taylor (Photo courtesy of Yale University)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Yale University researchers say they may have found a link between cell phone use during pregnancy and behavioral problems in children such as hyperactivity.

We cant extrapolate from this what level of exposure is bad, but it lays the groundwork for saying cell phone exposure can cause harm, says Hugh S. Taylor, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine and chief of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility in the schools department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences.

If youre pregnant, it makes sense to move your cell phone away from your abdomen when youre not on an active call. Putting it on a desk or a table might be better, Taylor says.

The Yale study was conducted on pregnant mice, exposing them to radiation from a cell phone placed over their cage. Taylor says the findings, published in the March 15 issue of Scientific Reports, mirror those of previous epidemiological studies conducted with people.

Those studies, Taylor explains, were sometimes dismissed by critics as being inconclusive, because other environmental factors in the pregnant womens lives might also have contributed to behavioral disorders in their children.

This study, in a mouse model, shows us this could indeed be cause and effect, Taylor notes. It probably does have implications for people.

Gabriela Campos of New Haven, who is expecting with her third child any day now, says the Yale studys findings make perfect sense to her.

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Cell phone use in pregnancy may be linked to behavior trouble in children