Are Airpods harmful to the brain?

Geschatte leestijd: 4 minuten Are you still training with your Airpods or have you been alarmed by the ‘news’ that these Airpods can be carcinogenic?

Airpods kankerverwekkend

‘You can get brain cancer from Airpods.’ Some 250 scientists from 40 different countries are said to have signed a petition warning of this danger. When this ‘news’ circulated on the internet last week, it was eagerly picked up by many media outlets. You probably know that game: sitting in a circle and whispering a story into the ear of the person next to you. They pass it on, omitting some parts and adding others. Eventually, you receive a story in your left ear that still contains aspects of your original story but has taken on a life of its own. So it is with the story about Airpods and the risk of brain cancer. If you look for the source, you’ll notice that the story is less newsworthy than the way it’s now being presented by various media outlets. If only because it’s not news.

https://youtu.be/0h8Wie2qAzE?t=165

‘News’

The signed petition dates back to 2015 and makes no mention of Airpods, but concerns bluetooth devices in general. Last Wednesday, however, this petition was cited by the blog Medium.com. For the piece, one of the signatories of the petition was quoted. Jerry Phillips, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Colorado.

My concern for AirPods is that their placement in the ear canal exposes tissues in the head to relatively high levels of radiofrequency radiation.

In 2015, scientists warned about the effects of radiation from mobile phones and bluetooth devices, now one of them mentions Airpods as a possible additional risk. To determine how ‘extra’ dangerous Airpods might be, it’s helpful to know how dangerous mobile phones and (other) bluetooth devices might be.

Ionizing Radiation and Non-Ionizing Radiation

Mobile phones generate ‘non-ionizing radiation’ to communicate with cell towers. When it comes to ionizing radiation, think of radiation from X-rays, nuclear power plants, and CT scans, which is known to be carcinogenic to humans and animals (in high doses). Governments and mobile phone manufacturers have long argued that non-ionizing radiation lacks the energy to break chemical bonds. Therefore, it couldn’t damage DNA and couldn’t lead to mutations that cause cancer. That changed in 2018 when American researchers from the US National Toxicology Program published the results of a long-term study. Non-ionizing radiation was found to cause cancer in rats [1]. There was clear evidence that it could cause heart tumors and indications that it could also cause brain cancer in male rats. Humans are, of course, not rats, at least most are not. Nevertheless, it was big news. After all, it showed that non-ionizing radiation could indeed damage DNA. Now the task is to determine how these results translate to humans and what dosage of radiation could be harmful.

Bluetooth and Cancer

1. qz.com/1241867/cell-phone-radiation-can-cause-cancer-in-rats-according-to-the-final-results-of-a-us-government-study/
2. consumerreports.org/radiation/do-i-need-to-worry-about-radiation-from-wifi-and-bluetooth-devices/

So much for mobile phones. What does this say about devices that use bluetooth, but also WiFi? Both use the non-ionizing radiation that mobile phones use. However, this dosage is much lower than that of mobile phones. This is not very surprising. Mobile phones need to communicate with cell towers over long distances. Bluetooth devices usually only need to cover a few meters, between your mobile phone and headphones, for example. It is therefore not clear whether this lower dosage of radiation can actually pose a risk [2].

Long-term Use of Airpods

So far, there doesn’t seem to be much reason for news programs to shout from the rooftops that Airpods cause cancer. We still don’t know what the radiation from mobile phones does to humans, and the radiation from Airpods and other bluetooth devices is likely much lower. However, you still can’t entirely trust that your Airpods, or other bluetooth earbuds and headphones, are harmless. Firstly, because they are often worn for long periods of time. If it turns out that these devices can be harmful, you wouldn’t be happy to have had them against your head or in your ears for hours a day for years.

Conclusion

I still wear the bluetooth headphones that I once reviewed. These can also be attached with a cable, which is how I use them at home. Like now, while I write this article. With the cable, I don’t have to worry about battery life. However, I’m used to wearing wireless headphones in the gym. I only have the cable with me if I forgot to charge the battery and fear hearing people talking around me halfway through the workout. For some exercises, it’s just annoying to have a mobile phone in your pocket and a cable in the way. For example, during the leg press, the cable can slide out of the pocket. During other exercises, the movement can pull the cable out just when you’re pumped up by the music and ready to start your set. Do I see a reason to do this differently? Maybe I should reverse it. Under the motto of ‘prevention is better than cure’. Perhaps using the cable should be the rule and wireless the exception. In any case, I have the choice. Thanks to a mobile phone that is already years old. I see the development where manufacturers force you to work wirelessly or buy an adapter to use a cable in this context as a bad development.

References

1. qz.com/1241867/cell-phone-radiation-can-cause-cancer-in-rats-according-to-the-final-results-of-a-us-government-study/
2. consumerreports.org/radiation/do-i-need-to-worry-about-radiation-from-wifi-and-bluetooth-devices/