Wednesday, 10 May, 2000, 08:15 GMT 09:15 UK
A major report into mobile phones and health advises limits on their use by children, the
BBC understands.
While the Stewart Report has found no clear evidence that mobiles can damage the health of either adults or children, scientists suggest there may be some effect on the human body.
The report says that, as a precaution, children should limit their mobile phone use until more research has been completed.
And it recommends that mobile phone companies should not aim their advertising at children.
The report was commissioned in response to fears that mobile use could be linked to memory loss, and even Alzheimer's disease.
Some studies have suggested that children are more vulnerable to the effects of
microwave radiation emissions.
A panel of 12 experts was involved in producing the report, which is due for publication
on Thursday morning.
The report is believed to point out that use of mobiles whilst driving represented a far greater hazard to the public.
Sir Liam Donaldson will be asked to work with panel chairman Sir William Stewart from Tayside University in Scotland to draw up new precautionary health guidelines on mobiles.
This could involve advice on how how often and how long young people could use a mobile - and even recommend a minimum age.
Other recommendations will include restrictions on the siting of mobile phone transmitter masts near schools, hospitals or residential areas.
There has been a fierce campaign, particularly in Scotland, to get the masts moved away from such areas.
£24bn windfall
There are an estimated 24m mobile users in the UK.
The Treasury has just generated a windfall of £22.5bn from the auction of third-generation mobile phone licences.
Earlier leaks to the press had suggested that mobiles would be given a "clean bill of health" by the report - but panel members are understood to have been "angered" by this suggestion.
Dr Alan Preece, from Bristol University, told the BBC that more research was needed: "I just can't believe the explosion in mobile phone use in the last five years.
"I think we really do need to research it to reassure the public that there are no long term effects."
The radiation emitted by mobile phones is not x-ray radiation, but microwave radiation, and some scientists were concerned that it might actually be heating and damaging brain cells because the phone is held so close to the head.
Others have dismissed this, saying even a bout of exercise would heat the brain more than mobile phone microwaves.
The Consumers' Association published research in April which showed hands-free kits - which had been promoted as a way of reducing microwave interference on the brain - could actually amplify the energy and channel it directly into the caller's head.
To return to orange index click HERE
.
This site is evolving therefore you may wish to use refresh button each visit.