U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to ban cell phones in schools because they “produce electromagnetic radiation” has sparked backlash online, reports Newsweek.
Kennedy Jr. is pushing the "right policy (get cellphones out of kids' hands during the school day)" but has a "wacky reasoning" for it, Ashish K. Jha, a physicist who serves as dean of Brown University School of Public Health, said in a post on X.
"There's so much actual evidence to support banning phones in schools but RFK chooses the one that's from a guy on TikTok with sunglasses and 12 followers who 'did their own research,’” said Carl Hendrick, a professor of education at Academica University of Applied Sciences.
Kennedy Jr. on Thursday told Fox News cell phones “emit electromagnetic radiation, which has been proven to cause neurological damage to children when they are exposed to it all day."
Biologist Arijit Chakravarty said that claim was “unproven.”
Added Heath Mayo, an attorney who founded Principles First:"Cell phones produce low-level radiation which study after study has shown to be completely harmless. RFK either doesn't know that or doesn't care. He would rather spout made-up things he heard at a bar once because it's easier than doing his homework. Embarrassing he leads HHS."