Washington: A recent study has revealed that children born from mothers, who lived near cell phone towers when they were pregnant, do not have an increased risk of cancer.
British researchers at Imperial College London`s School of Public Health carried out the study.
The researchers studied nearly 2,000 cases of childhood cancer in Britain between 1999 and 2001, and found that there was no correlation between how close their mother lived to cell phone towers and incidence of cancer.
Several types of cancers were examined, including cancers of the brain and central nervous system, leukemia, and non-Hodgkin`s lymphoma.
"There is no association between risk of early childhood cancers and estimates of the mother`s exposure to mobile phone base stations during pregnancy," Discovery News quoted the researchers as saying.
"The small amount of power being transmitted by the phone is traveling several kilometers to the tower. Also, the cell phone has to transmit this very little power in all directions. The small power in the direction of the tower passes through several walls and other obstructions, even people, without impeding the communication," physicist ST Lakshmikumar told Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
The chief threat of cell phones is the distraction they cause, not the electromagnetic fields they emit.
According to one study, drivers who are busy texting on their cell phones are six times more likely to get in an accident than those who do not.
The study was published in the British Medical Journal.
ANI