Italian court rules mobile phone use caused brain tumour

An Italian court has ruled that excessive, work-related use of a mobile phone caused an executive to develop a benign brain tumour.

In what could become a landmark ruling, the court in the northern town of Ivrea awarded the plaintiff a state-funded pension.

The judgment, which was handed own on 11 April but only made public on Thursday, is subject to a possible appeal.

Roberto Romeo, 57, had testified that his work duties obliged him to use his mobile for three to four hours of each working day for 15 years.

“For the first time in the world, a court has recognised a causal link between inappropriate use of a mobile phone and a brain tumour,” his lawyers, Stefano Bertone and Renato Ambrosio said in a statement.

Romeo said he did not want to demonise mobiles, “but I believe we have to be more aware about how to use them.

“I had no choice but to use my mobile to talk to colleagues and organise work – for 15 years I was calling all the time, from home, in the car.

“I started to have the feeling of my right ear being blocked all the time and the tumour was diagnosed in 2010. Happily, it was benign but I can no longer hear anything because they had to remove my acoustic nerve.”

A medical expert estimated the damage to Romeo at 23% of his bodily function, prompting the judge to make a compensation award of €500 per month to be paid by INAIL, a national insurance scheme covering workplace accidents.

Scientific studies of the potential health risks of mobile phones have mostly concluded that they pose no serious risk to human health at the level of most people’s use.

Heavier use may pose some risk, other studies have found, and many experts say it is too early to do a proper assessment of what is a relatively new technology.

Italian court rules mobile phone use caused brain tumour

Sea Hero Quest: the mobile phone game helping fight dementia

A mobile phone game that tests spatial navigation skills and has been played by 2.4 million people, has become the largest dementia study in history and raised hopes of a breakthrough in diagnosing the disease.

Sea Hero Quest, a collaboration between Alzheimer’s Research UK, Deutsche Telekom, game designers Glitchers and scientists, has generated the equivalent of 9,400 years of lab-based research since its launch in May.

Experts hope to use the data to create the world’s first global benchmark for spatial navigation, one of the first abilities affected by dementia, and to develop the game into an early diagnostic test for the disease, which is the leading cause of death in England and Wales.

Dr Hugo Spiers, of University College London, who presented the preliminary findings at the Neuroscience 2016 conference in San Diego, said: “This is the only study of its kind, on this scale, to date. Its accuracy greatly exceeds that of all previous research in this area. The findings the game is yielding have enormous potential to support vital developments in dementia research. The ability to diagnose dementia at early stages, well before patients exhibit any signs of general memory loss, would be a milestone.

“This study is thus now giving us the opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of millions of people living with dementia and those at risk of developing the disease in the future.”

Sea Hero Quest requires players to navigate a boat through waters in differently themed areas over 75 levels, collecting items along the way. It was designed to appeal to all gamers, rather than just people wanting to contribute to a good cause, and its popularity has seen the number of players soar past the original target of 100,000 by the end of the year.

Players provide their age and sex, allowing the scientists to chart their performance against other users.

Spiers said they could now create the equivalent of a height chart whereby if someone was particularly short – or in this case if their spatial navigation ability was particularly low – for their age and sex it would raise a red flag.

By testing a person’s spatial navigation abilities, the game could allow for diagnosis and treatment of patients far earlier.

Spiers said Sea Hero Quest, which will now be adapted for use in a clinical setting, could also be used to track decline and in drug trials to test the impact of the medication.

Alzheimer’s Research UK’s chief executive, Hilary Evans, praised the role of Deutsche Telekom, which has spent more than €1m (£860,000)on the project, including marketing.

“The early data that has very quickly been generated by Sea Hero Quest should inspire other corporations to consider what assets they might bring to research into dementia or any of our most seemingly intractable medical conditions,” she said.

The experts found differences in spatial navigation strategies employed by men and women, and also that spatial navigation abilities began to decline from early adulthood. For example, players aged 19 (the youngest in the study) had a 74% chance of accurately hitting a target during the game, compared with 46% among 75-year-olds (the oldest in the study). This decline over time contradicted previous studies – typically based on less than 100 people – which suggested cognitive abilities do not decline until later in life.

They also found that players in Nordic countries showed notable spatial navigation capabilities.

The scientists will carry out further analysis of the data over the next two years. In the meantime, the game continues to be available for free download and the data generated will contribute to the ongoing research.

Sea Hero Quest: the mobile phone game helping fight dementia

Tips for when the phone scammers call | Brief letters

Your article about scammers (How a phone call from ‘the bank’ cost an unsuspecting couple their life savings, 30 July) gave much good advice. However, when advising people to take a name and ring back it should have emphasised that they should use a different phone or leave it for a while before doing so. I write from bitter experience, having called back straight away not knowing the scammers were still on the line – even when I thought I was speaking to the police, having dialled 999.
Aileen Taylor
Trowbridge, Wiltshire

• Alfred Hickling asks if anyone can recall Kander and Ebb’s “clunkers” such as Flora the Red Menace or The Rink (The World Goes Round review, 1 August). We here in Richmond certainly can. Both of these clever, socially aware musicals have had successful productions on the tiny stage of our wonderful Orange Tree theatre. Flora was such a success that it was revived at least once. As for The Rink, we have an abiding memory of an intricate dance routine by six actors on roller skates in a space about 15 feet square – and no crashes!
Sylvia and Bernard Marder
Richmond, London

• Michael Carley of the University of Bath (Letters, 29 July) claimed that our skies haven’t been clear of aircraft for 200 years. Aeroplanes were invented in the early 20th century. Before then there were hot-air balloons, but how many? Were they regularly floating over the Yorkshire moors, Snowdonia, the Lake District, Cornwall, Devon or Scotland? I would hazard a guess that most people had never seen any form of aviation until the 20th century.
Caroline Compton
Oxford

• At my gym, there’s a sign on the door leading out of the toilets that says “Now wash your hands” (Letters, 2 August). So I go back to do it again. I’m sending this letter from my smartphone while trapped in a cycle of hygiene. Please rescue me.
Roy Kettle
Hitchin, Hertfordshire

• Back in the glory days of Bronco toilet paper, in the lavatories of some public buildings, each crackly, non-absorbent sheet bore the message “Now wash your hands”. Probably not an option with today’s softer loo paper.
Margaret Waddy
Cambridge

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Tips for when the phone scammers call | Brief letters

I hear his voice on the mobile phone and know my husband is consuming once more

‘I do what all British people do when a crisis is brewing and request R if he’d like a cup of tea.’

It all of a sudden feels all very three many years ago. I have accidently restored my cellphone settings so that all of my new contacts, photographs and suchlike have been deleted, and replaced with old stuff – photographs of our youngest when he was a child, text messages from individuals whose names I’ve now forgotten, extremely odd contacts with cryptic names, this kind of as Lawnmower Steve. 3 many years feels like a extremely extended time ago, or else my memory is shot.

On the very same evening that I mistakenly reconfigure my cellphone I get in touch with R, who is on his final night of a weekend away seeing old friends. I want to shoot the breeze, inform him how our daughter has run up a telephone bill that indicates I won’t be in a position to pay for groceries following month.

He listens silently as I tell him our son has a temperature. “Can you drive him to the GP?” he asks. It is 11pm on a Sunday night. This is the kind of nonsense he talks when he is drunk. And when he asks once more, I realise he is. He voice often lilts up towards the finish of sentences, a guise to preserve issues regular and cheery, an attempt to mask any malformed words.

This could be a scene from a couple of years back, an unremarkable journey exactly where I get to revisit my not-so-distance previous. R is pissed, slurring, talking baloney.

Nevertheless it is not like 3 years in the past, simply because my mind isn’t going to commence frantically analysing why he is consuming. (Was it the non-alcoholic beer he is been getting lately that has tempted him to drink the true thing? Is it because he is stopped going to AA meetings? Have his previous friends made him nostalgic for his outdated existence)?

I do not feel wounded in my chest, both, like almost everything has been ruined and R’s drunkenness will in the long run lead to chaos and a string of unhappy days. I feel a tiny unsettled and disappointed, yes, but I never continue with the conversation. I say goodbye and go to bed.

A friend whose husband is in recovery once explained: “There is totally no point in getting into into any type of conversation with R when he is drunk. You will only come to feel like crap.”

In the morning, R arrives home. I’m greeted by the potent whiff of a thousand drinks. It’s not pleasant, so I stand back. But weirdly the anger’s not there. Pity, maybe, simply because he seems to be fairly sad and says, “I will not think I can go on weekends away like that at the minute. Probably I never could.” I do what all British men and women do when a near-crisis is brewing and ask if R would like a cup of tea.

And sooner or later he says, “I drank,” which is one thing he never ever explicitly supplied up just before. I laugh and say, “The total of the bar?” and he begins to give me a serious solution but then he realises I am joking.

I want to update the familiar, new settings on my telephone but I fear they’re misplaced for ever. But at least I can scrub the pictures that remind me of 3 many years in the past. Not because it was all so horrible: we’re smiling as if we indicate it in some of the shots. We all search comparatively content and our elder son nevertheless has baby teeth that make him look impossibly wonderful, which for a moment fills me with a longing for all the children to stay for ever youthful.

But I was not at all Okay, not at all able to enjoy individuals real moments for any sustained time period of time back then. I was obsessed with R’s drinking. I counted his sober days like good behaviour factors on a children’s sticker chart.

I was fixated on his life as if it had been my personal. My easy belief was that if R could stop consuming then we would all be so considerably happier. I was full of rage, nevertheless unable to express it in a way that was valuable my anger like poison gas, omnipresent, ruining the great instances and producing the undesirable instances worse. So no, 3 years ago would not be someplace I would like to be. Apart from my hair. My hair was better then.

So we move on with out malice into the evening, when all of the young children have been place to bed by R, who has not when lain down and complained of a sore head. He tends to make me a dinner that is so delicious that I think of how wonderful a cook he is, rather than of his current binge. Simply because the moments of happiness that I considered I was missing out on three many years in the past, that I imagined could only exist if R remained sober for ever, can be experienced correct now.

I hear his voice on the mobile phone and know my husband is consuming once more

Phone for new generation of antibiotics to fight off superbugs

A bacteria strain of MRSA, which is amongst drug-resistant superbugs. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

Modern medication will come to an finish except if the globe develops a new generation of antibiotics, the chief health-related officer for England has warned.

The intervention from Prof Dame Sally Davies echoed that of David Cameron, who said antibiotic-resistant superbugs threatened to send medication “back into the dark ages”.

In a series of interviews, Davies said she welcomed the prime minister’s initiative in asking Jim O’Neill, a former Goldman Sachs chief economist, to lead an global specialist group to think about how drug businesses can be encouraged to make new antibiotics.

“I am delighted to see the prime minister taking a global lead by commissioning this overview to support new antibiotics to be designed and brought to patients successfully,” she said.

Davies advised BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that antibiotic-resistant infections were a grave problem that was receiving worse. In England, she stated, 5,000 people die from antibiotic-resistant infections a 12 months: “Deaths are increasing and there is an empty pipeline of drugs.”

Davies went on to warn that surgery for hip transplants and caesareans, and treatment method for ailments this kind of as cancer would be tough to carry out if there had been no indicates to kill off random infections in patients. “Contemporary medicine would quickly go out of the window,” she mentioned.

Dr Louise Leong, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Business, stated antibiotics had been a victim of their very own accomplishment by way of overuse and minimal prices, adding there was a need to have for a new financial model bringing together the private and public sectors. Leong informed the Right now programme that this was presently taking place by means of the Progressive Medicines Initiative, Europe’s biggest public-personal sector health care collaboration to tackle huge overall health difficulties, including antibiotic resistance.

The pharmaceutical sector has minor incentive to invest in investigation for medicines that are not taken every day and so do not reap big income. But Davies pointed out that unless the companies deal with antibiotic resistance, their drugs for cancer and other illnesses will not sell if antibiotics no longer function.

The pharmaceutical industry has created 3 generations of antibiotics in the previous 60 years. The 1st incorporated normal penicillins. However, this group became ineffective as bacteria evolved enzymes that broke the medicines apart. The 2nd had been synthetic penicillins, modified in the lab to resist these enzymes, but bugs gained resistance to these as well. The third generation, carbapenems, have been more modified. In 2003, the 1st microbes arrived in Britain that are immune to even these.

Cameron, who this month referred to as for instant action to accelerate the development of medication for dementia, is said to have raised the problem of antibiotic-resistant superbugs throughout last year’s G7 summit.

O’Neil’s review is anticipated to target on the improvement and regulation of antibiotics. The first £500,000 expense of the work will be met by the Wellcome Trust. The Division of Health explained the review will come up with a program for encouraging and accelerating the discovery and advancement of new generations of antibiotics.In certain, it will take into account: how to make investment in new antibiotics far more eye-catching to pharmaceutical firms the stability among powerful and sustainable incentives for investment how governments and other funders can stimulate investment in new antimicrobials and escalating worldwide cooperation, including significantly closer doing work with poor countries.

The overview will current its first findings in the course of 2015 with a final report and suggestions to then stick to in the course of 2016. This procedure will run alongside the Planet Overall health Organisation’s growth of a worldwide action prepare on antimicrobial resistance.

Cameron has described the emergence of untreatable bacteria as one particular of the biggest health threats dealing with the world right now. “This is not some distant threat, but one thing happening proper now,” he told the Times. “If we fail to act, we are looking at an nearly unthinkable scenario where antibiotics no longer operate and we are cast back into the dark ages of medication, where treatable infections and injuries will kill after once again. That simply cannot be allowed to occur and I want to see a stronger, more coherent global response.”

Specialists cautioned, nevertheless, that antibiotic resistance is a normal phenomenon that can not be readily stopped, only managed. “Establishing new antibiotics will aid handle the developing problem of resistance to at the moment offered drugs,” stated Professor Alan Johnson, an skilled in antibiotic resistance surveillance at Public Wellness England.

“Regrettably, it is not the whole solution as resistance to any new medicines is also probably to produce over time. At a international level, we need to have to improve our antibiotic stewardship and infection prevention and manage practices, as effectively as building far better diagnostic tests so that infections are taken care of with the most suitable antibiotic at an early stage. Combined, these actions would assist to stem the speed at which resistance to current and new antibiotics develops and help to prolong the use of these critically important medicines.”

Mark Dosher, secretary to the Bella Moss Basis (BMF), a pet charity, mentioned: “It has to be recognised that new antibiotics could outcome in new resistance pathogens so we have to appear into other places, from hygiene and surroundings to the life style of people and which individuals – and animals – are more prone to infection. David Cameron’s taskforce is a excellent concept – as prolonged as it isn’t going to solely concentrate on the price and regulation of new medication. Just concentrating on financial incentives for wellness businesses to create new drugs would be a mistake in the long-term.”

Phone for new generation of antibiotics to fight off superbugs

Phone hacking: David Cameron to be grilled on Andy Coulson vetting

“There was a guilty verdict yesterday of a guy, Mr Coulson, who was already accused of this kind of things when he was brought into Downing Street by the Prime Minister,” Mr Balls mentioned.

“And a selection was manufactured – and this will be place to the Prime Minister these days – not to have Mr Coulson effectively vetted as people in his occupation often have been. And the question is for the Prime Minister, is a partial apology sufficient or do we truly have to look into what went wrong?”

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, explained he would not have offered Mr Coulson the work of Downing Street director of Communications. He additional the position was a Conservative 1, including: “I and my Lib Dem colleagues were in no way concerned in this appointment.”

Mr Cameron yesterday issued a “profound apology”, saying offering Mr Coulson a “second chance” was a “bad decision”. In a televised apology made in Downing Street yesterday, Mr Cameron mentioned: “I consider full obligation for using Andy Coulson.

“I did so on the basis of undertakings I was offered by him about mobile phone hacking and individuals turned out not to be the situation.

“I often stated that if they turned out to be incorrect, I would make a total and frank apology and I do that right now.

“I am really sorry that I employed him. It was the incorrect selection and I am very clear about that.”

Mr Osborne, who initially suggested Coulson just months after he resigned from the Information of the World, said: “I as well am very sorry for the determination we manufactured to employ Andy Coulson.

One particular minister last evening criticised Mr Osborne and explained it was a “damning indictment” of his judgement.

Phone hacking: David Cameron to be grilled on Andy Coulson vetting

Uk launches greatest research of mobile phone effects on children"s brains

The Department of Health has commissioned the world’s largest review into the results of mobile phones’ radio waves on childrens’ brains, 9 years after a government examine mentioned youngsters need to only use mobile phones when “definitely needed”.

The Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones (Scamp) will examine about 2,500 schoolchildren at the ages of eleven and twelve, gather information about how they use the phones and how a lot time they spend on them, and assess them two years later on on mental functions this kind of as memory and interest, which carry on to develop into the teenage many years.

Whilst no research has ever proven harmful effects from the lower-energy radio waves, recognized as “non-ionizing radiation”, created by mobile phones, nearly all have targeted on grownups.

The last tips on childrens’ use of mobile phones came in the Stewart report in January 2005, in which Sir William Stewart advised that as a precaution youngsters under eight should not use mobile phones at all, and that older kids ought to use it for texting rather than voice calls.

Considering that then ownership of mobile phones has continued to rise: an estimated 70% of 11- to 12-12 months-olds in the United kingdom now personal a mobile telephone, increasing to 90% by age 14.

The Scamp study will be led by Dr Mireille Toledano, of the faculty of medicine at Imperial College, who has written papers on investigations into claims of cancer hyperlinks between reduced-energy emissions from mobile phones and from power lines.

The Scamp research was commissioned by the Department of Health by means of the Investigation Initiative on Well being and Mobile Telecommunications, which is funded jointly by the government and mobile telephone operators.

Toledano stated: “This suggestions to mother and father is based on the precautionary principle, offered in the absence of offered evidence, and not simply because we have proof of any hazardous effects.

“As mobile phones are a new and widespread technological innovation central to our lives, carrying out the Scamp study is important in buy to offer the proof base with which to inform policy and via which parents and their kids can make informed life selections.

“By assessing the young children in yr seven and once again in year nine we will be able to see how their cognitive capabilities produce in relation to altering use of mobile phones and other wireless technologies.”

The study will by its nature contain some examination of the impact of Wi-Fi capability, given that a lot of children now use smartphones – which have a tendency to have higher SAR (distinct absorption charge) values, a measure of how considerably electromagnetic radiation is absorbed by the entire body for the duration of use, than older mobile phones.

But even that image is complex simply because older phones tend only to use GSM technological innovation, which emits far more radiation than the 3G technological innovation of newer phones.

Current Uk overall health guidelines, based mostly on the 2005 Stewart report, say young children underneath 16 should be encouraged only to use mobile phones for crucial calls, and in which possible to use a hands-cost-free kit or to send text messages. When they do have to make calls, they are advised to maintain them brief.

Regardless of there currently being no convincing evidence that mobile phones impact adult wellness, authorities have hypothesized that youngsters could be much more vulnerable to any results due to their developing nervous methods and thinner skulls, which absorb greater levels of radio energy.

Professor Patrick Haggard, deputy director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London and chairman of the Scamp steering committee, said it was crucial to have a properly-funded, huge-scale review. “It has taken a long time to get to this. A longitudinal examine, which seems to be at a lot folks, is much better but a lot more expensive and tough to set up.”

A whole lot of earlier scientific studies had been too tiny to rule out chance effects, he stated. “It truly is good that the Uk is major in this. I hope that the public, dad and mom and little ones are prepared to give generously of their time.”

The World Well being Organisation (WHO) has ranked forward-hunting scientific studies of the results of mobile phones on children and adolescents as a “highest priority research want”, but to date there are only two scientific studies, both in Europe, focusing on childhood cancers and mobile phone use. One particular has reported no association and the other is ongoing.

Co-investigator Professor Paul Elliott, director of the MRC-PHE Centre for Setting and Wellness at Imperial University, stated: “Scientific proof accessible to date is reassuring and displays no association in between exposure to radio frequency waves from mobile mobile phone use and brain cancer in grownups in the brief phrase (much less than 10 many years of use). But the proof obtainable regarding lengthy term heavy use and children’s use is restricted and significantly less clear.”

Another study, named Cosmos, which has a United kingdom arm funded by the Department of Health, is currently investigating the attainable lengthy-term wellness results of mobile phones on 290,000 adult users over a time period of twenty to 30 many years. The most recent examine on this topic was carried out in Australia from 2006-7 with 250 participants, and published in 2010. It found no statistical impact.

Toledano said: “Scamp will complement this other research by focusing on the ongoing advancement of cognitive functions in the brain for the duration of adolescence.

“Cognition is primarily how we feel how we make selections and how we approach and recall information. It is linked to intelligence and educational achievement and kinds the building blocks of the modern and creative potential of each personal and consequently society as a complete.”

Youngsters volunteering for the review will undertake classroom-based mostly computerised tasks developed to measure cognitive abilities that underpin functions this kind of as memory and attention. Collectively with their dad and mom, they will also response concerns about their use of mobile phones and other gadgets, wellbeing and life style.

Toledano additional: “Taking element in Scamp is a wonderful chance for colleges to bring ‘live’ science into their classrooms, display young children how we conduct wellness investigation and, above all, for colleges, pupils and dad and mom to make a real contribution to the well being of present and long term generations.”

Uk launches greatest research of mobile phone effects on children"s brains

Uk launches biggest research of mobile mobile phone effects on children"s brains

The Department of Well being has commissioned the world’s biggest study into the effects of mobile phones’ radio waves on childrens’ brains, nine many years following a government study said children must only use mobile phones when “totally essential”.

The Review of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones (Scamp) will examine about 2,500 schoolchildren at the ages of 11 and 12, acquire data about how they use the phones and how a lot time they invest on them, and assess them two many years later on on psychological functions such as memory and consideration, which carry on to produce into the teenage years.

Even though no review has ever shown damaging effects from the minimal-power radio waves, known as “non-ionizing radiation”, produced by mobile phones, almost all have targeted on grownups.

The final suggestions on childrens’ use of mobile phones came in the Stewart report in January 2005, in which Sir William Stewart suggested that as a precaution kids under eight ought to not use mobile phones at all, and that older youngsters must use it for texting rather than voice calls.

Since then ownership of mobile phones has continued to rise: an estimated 70% of eleven- to 12-12 months-olds in the Uk now own a mobile phone, increasing to 90% by age 14.

The Scamp examine will be led by Dr Mireille Toledano, of the faculty of medication at Imperial College, who has written papers on investigations into claims of cancer back links among minimal-energy emissions from mobile phones and from power lines.

The Scamp review was commissioned by the Department of Overall health through the Analysis Initiative on Well being and Mobile Telecommunications, which is funded jointly by the government and mobile mobile phone operators.

Toledano stated: “This guidance to mother and father is based mostly on the precautionary principle, provided in the absence of obtainable evidence, and not simply because we have proof of any damaging results.

“As mobile phones are a new and widespread technological innovation central to our lives, carrying out the Scamp examine is important in order to offer the evidence base with which to inform policy and by way of which parents and their kids can make informed lifestyle options.

“By assessing the youngsters in yr 7 and yet again in 12 months 9 we will be in a position to see how their cognitive abilities create in relation to changing use of mobile phones and other wireless technologies.”

The study will by its nature include some examination of the impact of Wi-Fi capability, offered that several young children now use smartphones – which have a tendency to have larger SAR (specific absorption charge) values, a measure of how a lot electromagnetic radiation is absorbed by the body during use, than older mobile phones.

But even that picture is challenging since older phones have a tendency only to use GSM technologies, which emits a lot more radiation than the 3G engineering of newer phones.

Recent Uk health tips, based on the 2005 Stewart report, say kids beneath 16 ought to be encouraged only to use mobile phones for vital calls, and the place attainable to use a hands-free of charge kit or to send text messages. When they do have to make calls, they are suggested to maintain them brief.

Regardless of there becoming no convincing proof that mobile phones impact grownup well being, authorities have hypothesized that young children could be far more vulnerable to any results due to their developing nervous techniques and thinner skulls, which soak up larger ranges of radio power.

Professor Patrick Haggard, deputy director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University University London and chairman of the Scamp steering committee, explained it was crucial to have a properly-funded, large-scale review. “It has taken a extended time to get to this. A longitudinal research, which seems to be at a whole lot men and women, is far better but a lot more high-priced and difficult to set up.”

A great deal of earlier scientific studies were also modest to rule out likelihood effects, he mentioned. “It truly is great that the Uk is leading in this. I hope that the public, parents and kids are ready to give generously of their time.”

The Globe Well being Organisation (WHO) has ranked forward-hunting studies of the effects of mobile phones on children and adolescents as a “highest priority analysis want”, but to date there are only two research, each in Europe, focusing on childhood cancers and mobile mobile phone use. 1 has reported no association and the other is ongoing.

Co-investigator Professor Paul Elliott, director of the MRC-PHE Centre for Atmosphere and Health at Imperial School, explained: “Scientific proof offered to date is reassuring and shows no association amongst publicity to radio frequency waves from mobile phone use and brain cancer in grownups in the quick term (significantly less than 10 years of use). But the evidence obtainable concerning lengthy term heavy use and children’s use is constrained and less clear.”

Another examine, called Cosmos, which has a United kingdom arm funded by the Department of Health, is at present investigating the attainable extended-phrase health results of mobile phones on 290,000 adult users in excess of a period of twenty to 30 years. The most current research on this topic was carried out in Australia from 2006-7 with 250 participants, and published in 2010. It found no statistical result.

Toledano said: “Scamp will complement this other investigation by focusing on the ongoing growth of cognitive functions in the brain for the duration of adolescence.

“Cognition is essentially how we believe how we make selections and how we method and recall data. It is linked to intelligence and educational achievement and kinds the constructing blocks of the progressive and imaginative likely of each and every personal and for that reason society as a whole.”

Youngsters volunteering for the review will undertake classroom-primarily based computerised tasks made to measure cognitive skills that underpin functions this kind of as memory and consideration. Collectively with their parents, they will also reply concerns about their use of mobile phones and other devices, wellbeing and way of life.

Toledano additional: “Taking part in Scamp is a amazing possibility for schools to deliver ‘live’ science into their classrooms, demonstrate youngsters how we perform overall health research and, over all, for colleges, pupils and mothers and fathers to make a real contribution to the wellness of recent and future generations.”

Uk launches biggest research of mobile mobile phone effects on children"s brains

Girl forced to phone national NHS variety to see physician in following area

“We are so cross and angry and what issues the household is that this could occur to a person who is in a vulnerable state and has no household or friends nearby to support.”

Ms Riddle, of Midsomer Norton, Somerset, was sooner or later capable to book in to see the doctor in the following room at Paulton Hospital close to Bath.

But there was a even more complication when the system showed she had been booked into the Royal University Hospital in Bath without having becoming advised.

The household is writing to the NHS to complain.

A spokesman for the Bath and North East Somerset Medical professionals Urgent Care explained: “Healthcare professionals which includes Small Damage Unit Nurses can contact our support directly employing a focused phone line to go over patient requirements with a single of our physicians who will then decide an proper program of action. An appointment for the patient to see 1 of our medical professionals for a face to encounter consultation will be organized by our service if suitable.”

He mentioned medical professionals primarily based in centres will talk to patients on the cellphone to give tips as well as see them encounter to face, meaning appointments are not always obtainable.

He added: “Appointment times presented to patients are primarily based on the patient’s assessed clinical want.”

Girl forced to phone national NHS variety to see physician in following area

Pet subjects: why does my dog detest our new phone?

Matted fur on the lower back is common in older cats, and can happen for a number of reasons, including lack of flexibility due to arthritis, dental disease preventing thorough self-grooming, and general geriatric lethargy. Ideally, early intervention can solve this, by gently teasing out the clumped fur before it accumulates. If you leave the clumps, they will get bigger, forming uncomfortable pads of matted fur. The best answer is to ask your vet to remove the clumped areas with electric clippers; during the same visit, you can ask about any related issues that your cat may need help with, such as dental disease, arthritis, and other hidden geriatric problems that can often be simply treated.

My 10-year-old cat Monty has always refused to sleep on my bed. He sleeps everywhere else: on the spare bed, under my bed and in any other cosy spot, but whenever I put him on my bed, he jumps straight off. I have tried various colours of bedding and I call him over when I am in bed to give him attention. Is there anything else I can do? I’d love the company of Monty sleeping by my feet.

EC, Skelmersdale

Monty may have once suffered some adverse event associated with sleeping on a bed with a person in it: perhaps his own rest was disturbed by someone’s feet wriggling? You need to do more to encourage him to enjoy sleeping there in the daytime, when there’s no one else there. Make your bed as appealing as possible, using thick, soft cat bedding. Set up an electric cat bed heater (available in most pet shops), spray cat pheromones on the covers (Feliway, available from vets or online, is good), and scatter some tasty treats on the bedspread to entice him (thrivepetfoods.com). If he discovers that your bed is the cosiest place in the house to snooze in the daytime, there’s a good chance that he’ll get into the habit of sleeping there at night too.

My garden has a wild patch that always sprouts nettles in springtime. In the past, I’ve kept my rabbits away from this area, but someone told me that they enjoy eating them. Is this true? Surely they could be hurt by getting stung?

LR, Salisbury

The Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund website (rabbitwelfare.co.uk) has an advice sheet detailing the safe plants that can be fed to rabbits, and you’ll be glad to hear that nettles are included. Rabbits seem to be resistant to nettle stings, and I’ve heard of rabbits happily munching their way through nettle crops that would leave humans covered in painful stings. If you still worry that your rabbit may be sensitive, you could cut the nettles then allow them to dry for a day or so (or more rapidly by putting them in the oven). This removes some of the stinging effect for humans, so it’s likely to make them even more appetising to rabbits.

Time for action on fat cats (and dogs)

Nearly 80 per cent of vets believe pet obesity is on the rise since 2009, with serious adverse consequences for dog, cat and rabbit health and welfare. If pets are kept at their ideal body size, their lifespan can be extended by up to two years. A recent survey showed that nearly one in three (30 per cent) owners relied only on instinct when deciding pet food portion size rather than giving a measured ration of food. For tips on how to keep your pet at the ideal weight, visit pfma.org.uk/weighinwednesday.

Rescue pet of the week

James is an adult tabby cat with a lovely personality. Contact Celia Hammond Animal Trust on 020 7474 8811 or visit celiahammond.org to find out more about him. To find out the outcomes of the rescued pets that are featured in this column, see Pet Subjects Rescue.

*Send pet problems to pete.wedderburn@telegraph.co.uk. All sick animals should, of course, be taken to a vet

Pet subjects: why does my dog detest our new phone?

Hundreds of well being experts phone for smoking ban in cars carrying young children

About 700 physicians, nurses and other health professionals have referred to as on the Government to ban smoking in automobiles carrying children ahead of a Commons vote on Monday.

In a letter to the British Health care Journal, respiratory specialists explained second-hand smoke was a “major result in of ill wellness in children”, damaging the lungs, leading to sudden infant death and major to thousands of hospital trips a yr.

They claimed people objecting to a modify in the law assumed there was a “right to force young children to breathe tobacco smoke”. Objectors “seem to worth this a lot more hugely than the children’s right to breathe clean air”, they added.

The letter comes as a minister announced there would be a Commons vote on the problem on Monday. Robert Goodwill, the transport minister, informed MPs he would vote in favour of a ban, having been forced to sit in the back of a auto as a little one although his father smoked.

Smoking lobbyists hit back. Simon Clark, the director of Forest, mentioned: “Smoking in autos with young children is inconsiderate but there is a line the state shouldn’t cross when it comes to dictating how individuals behave in private spots.

“Very few grownups smoke in a vehicle with youngsters these days. Government must take encouragement from that and focus on training not legislation.”

“We urge MPs to reject this needless intrusion into people’s private lives and trust mothers and fathers to make the appropriate selection for their young children without having the need for hefty-handed state intervention.”

Hundreds of well being experts phone for smoking ban in cars carrying young children