Taiwan may ban the use of mobile phones in schools by students under the age of 15 amid concerns over potential cancer risks.
The island's Education Ministry will hold a public hearing later this month to study whether to impose such a ban, which could affect more than 2.5 million school children, ministry officials said yesterday.
'We will invite experts, parents, school representatives and doctors to discuss the issue at the meeting,' said Liao Shuang-ching, a spokesman for the ministry's Division of Environmental Protection Education.
He said proposals made at the public hearing would be reviewed by the ministry.
Another official said the hearing would be held before the end of this month. She said the decision came after appeals by legislators and environmentalists for a ban on mobile phones in primary and junior schools to reduce younger students' exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields.
Chen Jiau-hua, head of the Taiwan Electromagnetic Radiation Hazard Protection and Control Association, warned last week of the possible risk and demanded the authorities devise measures to protect school children.
'The World Health Organisation has already labelled electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones as carcinogenic,' Chen said, adding that the ministry needed to do something because such radiation could affect children's learning abilities.
