Tuesday 1 September 2009

It's Mobile Madness!

As Leg-Iron pointed out, you just can't rely on scare stories to keep up the momentum these days:
Plans to give the green light for children to use mobile phones despite cancer fears have angered health campaigners.

The draft of a new advisory leaflet for parents by the Department of Health removes safety advice to impose strict limits on youngsters' use of the handsets.

It goes on to suggest that heating to the head caused by using a mobile is no more harmful than a hot bath.
Predictably, the 'For the Chiiiillllldrrreeeeennnn!' brigade are up in arms, and insisting the government has dropped this warning because they are happy to fry a kid's brains so long as they get their filthy hands on that sweet, sweet tax revenue:
Alasdair Philips, of the Powerwatch organisation opposed relaxing the safeguards, saying: 'A number of international studies have found a significant increase in brain tumours among people who have used a cellphone for more than ten years.

'It's incredible that the notion there is no good reason to restrict children's use of mobile phones could be the official Government line. This would be completely irresponsible and immoral.

'Parents are under pressure to buy mobiles for their children at younger and younger ages. By doing this they may well be giving them brain tumours in 30 years' time.

'The Government seems to be more interested in tax revenue from mobile phone calls - which is about £15billion per year now - than in the protection of public health.

'Children under 11 should not use a mobile, full stop. Older children should be encouraged to text only and hold their handset away from their body when they do so.'
Cheers, Al.

Personally, I find it rather difficult to text while simultaneously hugging my mobile close to me, but there you go...

So, is the government out to milk money from our children's corpses? Or have they decided that the evidence these pressure groups claim is, well, as settled as all the other evidence all those other pressure groups have claimed in the past...?

5 comments:

Ross said...

I'm not normally one to defend the government but I feel confident in saying that they aren't conspiring to give children mobile phone cancer for the sake of a small increase in tax revenues.

JuliaM said...

Me neither. You wouldn't think they'd be able to get away with that kind of blatant nonsense.

Perhaps it's a sign that the government is pretty well hated now in every corner...

Mike said...

And apparently 60% of girls are being beaten and raped:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090901/tuk-shocking-abuse-among-teen-couples-re-45dbed5.html

One wonders why anyone has children or gets out of bed. Lock up your daughters!

Mac the Knife said...

"So, is the government out to milk money from our children's corpses? Or have they decided that the evidence these pressure groups claim is, well, as settled as all the other evidence all those other pressure groups have claimed in the past...?"

Personally, I wouldn't put anything past them. If they can commit troops to battle without basic kit, and deny LF training to reservists what's to stop them? Certainly not morality or compassion.

Analysis of mobile use among the spawn of the inner circle might prove illuminating.

David Gillies said...

Anyone who doesn't know what -110 dBm or 21 μeV mean in physical and biological terms should belt up.