A wake-up call for Thais who sleep with their cell phones
A telecommunications protection group is warning Thais to stop sleeping with their mobile phones at night to reduce the risk of developing a brain tumor.
Bangkok's English-language newspapers carried the warning, stemming from a World Health Organization (WHO) report released in May that found people who use their mobiles phones too much risk getting cancer.
So how much is too much? The WHO said people who talk on their cellphones for more than 1,640 hours over a period of 10 years faced a greater risk of developing a type of tumor most commonly found in the brain.
In response to the report, Telecommunications Consumer Protection Institute director Prawit Leesathapornwongsa reportedly said that Thais could be even more at risk because of their habit of sleeping with their cellphones.
Monster and Critics cites a survey conducted by the Thai institute and Bangkok's Abac polling institute earlier this year that found that 64.5 percent of Thai mobile phone users liked to sleep with their activated cellphones near their heads.
Skeptics needn't throw away their phones just yet though. The debate on whether mobile phone waves are carcinogenic clearly isn't over, with another study now claiming there's no link between the two. Check out this blog post on Time for more.