Not long after the World Health Organisation’s cancer experts warned that mobile phone devices are “possibly carcinogenic to humans”, the Taiwanese Education Ministry announced that it will consider banning mobile phones from schools.

In Taiwan, the number of cell phones in use as well as the average time spent using them is on the rise. According to local surveys, it is estimated that about 57% of Taiwanese students aged between 6 and 18 years old use cell phones, with about 62% of those students reported to be bringing them to school regularly.

On Wednesday, the education ministry stated that it planned to a host a meeting with experts and school representatives to discuss the issue, however, a date for the discussion has not been decided.

This recent announcement may come as good news to many local environmental groups that have been calling for cell phones to be banned in schools with students that are 15 years old and younger.

Yet many skeptics are questioning the response by the ministry of education. Critics who claim that the move may be too reactionary and dramatized point to the work of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organisation’s expert arm on the subject.

According to the IARC, current scientific evidence shows only a possible link, not a proven one between the use of cell phones and cancer.