Could cell phone towers in your neighborhood be causing harm to your family’s health?

Right now in the United States, there are nearly 300 million cell phone subscribers, and that number is on the rise. For that reason, the number of cell phone towers has increased dramatically.

People who leave near the towers often worry about their effects, especially on children, but new research says they should rest easy.

The towers that transmit to your cell phone are everywhere, and people have long feared that living near them could increase the risk of cancer, especially for kids.

“Because of the radiation, and it’s not good for them,” one parent said.

But now, British scientists say there’s no link to childhood cancer.

“There was no increase in risk,” Dr. Paul Elliot, of Imperial College London, said.

Researchers looked at 7,000 children and measured how close their pregnant moms lived to cell phone towers. They found those who developed cancer before the age of five were no more likely to have been exposed to cell tower signals.

“We didn’t find any evidence of any excess risk of childhood cancers in relation to either distance or estimated exposures,” Dr. Elliot said.

The study found you could spend an entire day near a cell phone tower and face less exposure to potentially harmful signals than having a 30-minute chat on your cell phone.

Researchers say their findings should reassure people living near cell towers that there’s no reason to move, but some mothers are still skeptical.

“You can never say never,” one mother said.

The report analyzed data from 1999 to 2001. It’s just the beginning of a cell phone study that will run for 20 to 30 years, following the health of 250,000 Europeans.

Just last month, a landmark study about the risks of talking on cell phones was released, with researchers finding no increased risk of brain tumors in people who talk on them regularly.

However, some experts still caution against prolonged cell phone use by children, since their nervous systems are still developing.

(Source: CBS2 HD)