New studies and upcoming laws on mobile phones !

Mobiles use could be risky in ICU's

A recent Dutch study said that electronic Gizmos like mobile phones, personal digital assistants and pagers may put a patient’s life at risk if they are used inside operation rooms and intensive care units. This means that taking a cellphone close to life support equipment is dangerous because the signal can switch off ventilators and disrupt pacemakers. The research was undertaken by University of Amsterdam and published in the medical journal Critical Care. They recorded 50 incidents of electromagnetic interference from cellphone use in hospitals, 75 per cent of them classified as hazardous.

But mobile phones are not allowed inside the intensive care unit in many hospitals. One explaination could be that doctors need to be on call all the time and in all these years, no untoward incident has been reported.

Karnataka planning to bans use of mobiles under-16's

Two years after schools and colleges in Karnataka imposed a ban on use of cell phones, the coalition government has decided to prohibit these gadgets among children below 16 years, citing adverse health effects. An official notification of the ban will be announced in the next couple days, according to Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj Horatti and Minister for Health and Family Welfare R Ashok said while talking to media. Their two ministries will write a joint letter to the Law Department for advice on a foolproof method to implement the ban. The ministries will also seek the department’s opinion on whether such a ban will be legal, the ministers told reporters here.

The state government’s decision, however, has come two years after educational institutions decided to restrict the use of mobile phones. These institutions took the decision in 2005 soon after New Delhi banned mobile phones in schools in the aftermath of an multimedia messaging service (MMS) clip of a sexual act between minor students was sent out to mobile phones and later posted on an online auction site. All engineering and medical colleges too have implemented the ban in order to prevent misuse of cell phones during practicals and examinations.