In 2000, The Stewart Report provided reassurance about the safety of mobile phones (and radio frequency (RF) exposure) for short term health outcomes in adults, however, advised a precautionary approach in relation to children and concluded that:
“…children may be more vulnerable because of their developing nervous system, the greater absorption of energy in the tissues of the head, and a longer lifetime of exposure… widespread use of mobile phones by children for non-essential calls should be discouraged”.
The International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIPR), World Health Organisation (WHO) and European Commission all state that the evidence suggests that Electromagnetic Fields below the international recommended limits do not appear to have any known adverse consequences of health. Radiofrequency (RF) fields are still classified as “possibly carcinogenic (Group 2B)” by the International Agency for Cancer. However, this guidance is still uncertain.
In 2010, the WHO published a new research agenda for RF fields and highlighted that: “it is still an open question whether children are more susceptible to radiofrequency and electromagnetic fields since the brain continues to develop during childhood and adolescence.” (WHO Research Agenda for Radiofrequency Fields, 2010: 14), ranking “prospective cohort studies of children and adolescents”, including neurocognitive and behavioural outcomes, as the “highest priority research need”.
Despite this open question, approximately 80% of secondary schools make use of wireless network technology, and 70% of 11-12 year olds have a mobile phone – these technologies are now part of our children’s daily life.
SCAMP is the largest study in the world of how mobile phones or other wireless devices (such as tablets, laptops, cordless phones) affect the development of young people’s cognitive functions (thinking abilities) develop between the ages of 11 to 14. In doing so, SCAMP will address current scientific uncertainties and directly respond to the WHO’s high priority RF research agenda.
A cohort study is a type of research study that follows the health of a group of people (a cohort) over a period of time to see how their exposures (e.g. mobile phone use) affect their outcomes (e.g. memory and problem solving). In this study, the cohort will be formed by year 7 children from participating schools.
Q. What is research?
A. Research means finding out more about something.
In the SCAMP study, we will find out more about our research question by collecting data. We will be collecting data from the school assessment and through online surveys taken at home (see the flow chart below).
The SCAMP study design
Q: What is cognitive functioning?
A: Thinking
– Cognitive functioning is crucial to success in most classroom settings
– For the direct learning of skills such as reading, maths and capacity to reason about abstract ideas
– But also for sitting at a desk for long periods, avoiding distractions and doing homework
Cognition is strongly linked to educational achievement and forms the building blocks for the innovative and creative potential of each individual and therefore the development of our society as a whole.
We will investigate cognitive functioning in two ways:
What aspects of cognition will we investigate?
Higher level cognitive functions
But also lower level cognition
The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of the brain. The figure above shows the thickness of the cerebral cortex. The more blue/purple the area, the thinner (and more adult like) the cortex is.
The frontal and temporal lobes show the most prolonged developmental changes in brain structure. These areas continue to develop and mature during adolescence.
The frontal and temporal lobes play a key role in higher cognitive functions such as language understanding, decision making, memory and reasoning and they are in closest proximity to mobile phone when held to the ear.
Mobile phones and other wireless technologies (e.g. cordless phone, tablets, and laptops) are sources of electromagnetic fields.
Another way to divide up the electromagnetic spectrum is into ionising and non-ionising radiation
Ionising radiation
Non- ionising radiation
Mobile phones and other wireless technologies belong to the radio frequency (RF) wave part of the spectrum which is so called because these radio-frequencies are typically used for communications, e.g. radio and TV broadcasting.
For information about the current government and NHS health advice on mobile phone use for the public, including children, please see the government website guidelines:
If you would like more information about radio frequency exposures from mobile phones and the health protection policy in the UK, please explore the links below: