Mobile phones cause bad behaviour in kids - report

If the kids are misbehaving then don’t blame their E number intake, because it could be your fault - or your missus' - for chatting too long on mobile phones during pregnancy.

That's the finding of a study into the behaviour of children up to age seven, born of 13,159 mums in Denmark in the late 1990s. A number academics were involved in the study, including Leeka Kheifets, a professor of Epidemiology from the University of California. Kheifets also serves on a committee that sets guidelines for exposure to mobile phones, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection.

Women who talked on a handset between two and three times each day during pregnancy were found to be 54 per cent more likely to give birth to a child with hyperactivity and emotional problems.

The report also concluded that tots aged seven or below are still at risk from developing such behavioural problems if you let them regularly talk into a mobile phone.

But UK quango the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has expressed some doubt about the study’s findings. A spokesman for the HPA told the Daily Mail that the results “need to be investigated thoroughly.

"There may be another cause for the observed effect," he said.

The researchers behind the study have admitted this time that there could be other possible reasons why your kids are acting up, including a theory that mothers who chat lots on a mobile after pregnancy spend less quality time with their kids.

The latest study adds to the bulging pile of reports into the effects of mobile phones on bodies and brains. Another recent report found that prolonged phone use could be more damaging to your health than smoking or asbestos.

But two separate studies have concluded that mobile phones don't increase your risk of developing brain cancer. Who do you believe?

The full results of Professor Kheifets’ study will be published in medical journal Epidemiology in July.