Sir William Stewart, chair of the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB), said parents should take a 'precautionary approach' to minimise mobile use by young children, despite a lack of conclusive proof that radiation emitted by the phones and masts is dangerous to public health.
A new NRPB report, Mobile Phones and Health 2004, says that children's brains are more vulnerable to radiation than adults because their nervous systems are still developing and their skull tissue is thinner.
Professor Stewart recommended that children should use mobiles for 'as short a time as possible and they should use text messaging as much as possible' instead. The NRPB report said text messaging, with the phone held away from the head, had 'considerable advantages' over voice communication.
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