Source: Medscape.com
Author: Roxanne Nelson, RN, BSN
A recent flurry of stories across the media have questioned the safety of wireless headphones or earpieces, and have focused in particular on Apple’s AirPods.
One of the concerns is whether having such devices in the ear increases the risk of cancer. Medscape Medical News reached out to several experts to ask about potential health hazards.
News stories began circulating in early March, with headlines such as “Are AirPods and Other Bluetooth Headphones Safe?” or “Wireless headphones could ‘pump radiation into your brain and cause cancer.'”
Most of the articles cite a petition to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) that was signed by 247 scientists from 42 countries, warning about the potential dangers of radiation from wireless technologies, and then add on concerns over newer devices such as AirPods.
This petition, however, was released in 2015 and does not discuss AirPods, which didn’t exist at the time, or Bluetooth technology. Yet despite this, sensationalist headlines — such as “Over 200 scientists say AirPods could cause cancer” — have emerged, even though the petition makes no mention of AirPods and alludes only to a possible increased cancer risk, along with other health concerns.
AirPods, in fact, are also not brand new; Apple introduced them in 2016. They have been exceedingly popular, with 28 million pairs sold last year and 16 million in 2017.
New research citing health concerns of AirPods or Bluetooth has been lacking. John E. Moulder, PhD, a radiation biologist and professor emeritus at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, told Medscape Medical News that the “last time I researched this issue was in 2016, and at that time I saw no scientific basis for concern. I haven’t heard of any concerns on the subject after 2016 until the last month or so.”
It is believed that the current onslaught of articles was ignited by a story posted on the website Medium, which mentions the petition to the WHO/UN, and also quotes Jerry Phillips, PhD, executive director, Excel Centers, and director, Excel Science Center, at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.
“My concern for AirPods is that their placement in the ear canal exposes tissues in the head to relatively high levels of radio-frequency radiation,” Phillips was quoted as saying. He added that the risks are not restricted to AirPods and that existing evidence “indicates potential concerns for human health and development from all technologies that operate at radio frequencies.”
However, experts approached by Medscape Medical News had different opinions.
“AirPods use standard 0.01-watt Bluetooth,” said Kenneth Foster, PhD, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. “A cell phone transmits 0.1-1 watts, and FCC records indicate that radio-frequency exposure from AirPods is far below their limits for cell phones and those measurements were done under ‘worst-case’ conditions that far overstate actual exposure under real world circumstances.”
Read the full article here: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/910453
