My son shrieks on occasion — can I attribute that to having used my cell phone while pregnant? The findings of a study of expectant mothers conducted in the late 1990s linked mobile phone usage with behavioral problems in their children. An Independent article about the results, which will be published in the July issue of the journal Epidemiology said:

A giant study, which surveyed more than 13,000 children, found that using the handsets just two or three times a day was enough to raise the risk of their babies developing hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct, emotions and relationships by the time they reached school age. And it adds that the likelihood is even greater if the children themselves used the phones before the age of seven.

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Surprised by the findings, scientists ruled out some biological and environmental factors that could have influenced the results and found their mobile phone correlation strengthened. It said:

They found that mothers who did use the handsets were 54 per cent more likely to have children with behavioural problems and that the likelihood increased with the amount of potential exposure to the radiation. And when the children also later used the phones they were, overall, 80 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties with behaviour. They were 25 per cent more at risk from emotional problems, 34 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties relating to their peers, 35 per cent more likely to be hyperactive, and 49 per cent more prone to problems with conduct.

But before we all hang-up our earpieces and ban our BlackBerrys, the article also noted there are "explanations that they did not examine – such as that mothers who used the phones frequently might pay less attention to their children."

Will these findings affect your cell phone usage?

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