Mobiles linked to child problems

The risk is even higher if the offspring start using mobile phones themselves by the time they are seven, according to the research on almost 29,000 young people.

Those children who were exposed to mobile phones in the womb and then in early childhood were 50 per cent more likely to have behavioural problems aged seven than children exposed to neither.

Only being exposed to mobile phones while in the womb was linked to a 30 per cent increase, while those only exposed to phones in childhood but not in the womb were 20 per cent more likely to display abnormal behaviour.