Cell Phone Dangers?

TAMPERE, Finland (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Scientists who suggested use of mobile phones among teenagers may be causing a corresponding decline in tobacco may have been blaming the wrong behavior, report Finnish investigators.

In a letter published in this month’s British Medical Journal, researchers outline a study showing the opposite, in fact, may actually be true.

In the late 1990s, researchers also publishing in the BMJ hypothesized that increasing popularity of cell phones among teens might be cutting into the amount of money they have to spend on cigarettes. They suggested that might explain why tobacco use among teens has been declining. These investigators tested that reasoning in a study involving more than 9,300 adolescents in Finland.

About 70 percent of the group responded to a written questionnaire asking about cigarette and cell phone use. Results showed nearly 60 percent of the group had smoked at least twice and about a quarter smoked on a daily basis. Ninety-one percent used mobile phones. As the use of mobile phones increased, so did the amount of smoking. Kids who used the phones for at least an hour a day were nearly eight-times more likely to smoke than those who never used the phones.

Amount of available cash did not appear to have any impact on the link between use of the phones and smoking, although the researchers note this may be different in countries where parents do not cover the costs of the phones as frequently as they do in Finland.

They conclude more study is needed to clarify the “symbolic role of mobile phones and smoking in modern adolescent cultures.”

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