Mobile Phone Call Impact on Children and Adolescents Health: Keynote Remarks

Background: Radiofrequency fields’ (RF) exposure of fetuses, infants, children and adolescent is intense, unambiguous and inevitable.

Aim: To outline all evidence relative to children and adolescents and reveal influences by RF (mobile phone) exposure.

Methods: Systematic review (and meta-analysis where possible) of literature related to RF description and or its impact on all body functions.

Results: EFHRAN identified two types of exposure sources: body close sources and far body sources. The 63% of the total radio- exposure that a person is exposed to is the mobile phone (main body-close source). Total exposure is inadequately or insufficiently described in literature but seems to play a crucial role in the effects. A review of 2743 studies identifies 7 groups of influences (carcinogenic, genotoxic, circadian rhythms, neural, reproductive, endocrine, addiction) and six physiological mechanisms (apoptosis, heat, resonance, oxidative stress, hydrophilic head or hydrophobic tails and/or calcium channels alterations in cell membrane). The body responds to electromagnetic fields by changes in all body’s functions. Although, the reported effects on endocrine system are multiple (thyroid, HPA, reproductive, somatotrophic etc), the reporting quality made meta-analysis impossible in the field. On the contrary, meta-analytic results include increase in dynamic and complexity of cardiac function (LLE g=1.408, CI95% [0.334, 0.408], SD1 g=0.659, CI95% [-0.243, -3.107]) during a mobile phone call. Furthermore, meta-regression results showed (i) strong vulnerability in the autonomic nervous system of the adolescents QM (1)= 4.378, p= 0.03, QR(2)=4.24 p=0.12 and (ii) the duration of a mobile call does not affect heart rate variability or the sympathovagal balance.

Conclusions: There is strong evidence that the pediatric research should orientate towards RF impact on children body functions.