hey I'm Dr Mike vski board certified Family Medicine doctor welcome to another episode of Truth or Scare on today's episode the claim is wireless bluetooth headphones are dangerous because they emit radiation that might cause brain cancer and airpods are riskier than other types of headphones let's start with saying that all wireless devices Wi-Fi routers baby monitors cell phones video game consoles SmartWatches headphones and more emit emfs also known as electromagnetic fields which are technically a type of radiation Bluetooth technology uses radiation in order to connect one wireless device to another such as headphones to an
iPhone or laptop emfs actually exist on a frequency spectrum where frequency essentially means energy and we can split these emfs into two main categories based on that frequency high frequency emfs are considered ionizing radiation a lot of exposure to that kind of radiation can change human cell structure enough to cause cancer x-ray machines CT scans they all emit low levels of ionizing radiation which is why precautions are taken to use them as little as possible UV light is also ionizing which is why I always say wear sunscreen and avoid tanning beds your entire life on
the other hand emfs from very low to mid frequency are nonionizing radiation nonionizing radiation does not have enough energy to directly damage cell DNA which is what happens when cancer develops however with this claim the theory is that low and moderate frequency emfs might not be directly causing cellular DNA damage but perhaps over time because we're not just using these headphones for a second or two that damage ultimately can arise but what does the evidence tell us about all of this to be honest there haven't been direct studies and looking at the health impacts of
radiation from Bluetooth headphones most of the research exploring the potential link between nonionizing emfs and cancer has focused on cell phones and although cell phones and Bluetooth headphones both emit the same kind of nonionizing radiation Bluetooth headphones emit a lot less of it 10 to 400 times less according to one 2019 study and at this point there are some experts that believe self are a potential risk for cancer and they've been quite vocal about their concerns for a while back in 2011 the international Agency for research on cancer which is an agency within the who
that evaluates cancer risks classified radio frequency radiation from wireless devices as a possible carcinogen the main evidence at the time was a large observational study that actually didn't find an overall increased risk of brain tumors from cell phone usage but the study did find a statistical Association so correlation not causation between malignant brain tumors called gomas and those who had the highest levels of cell phone exposure but researchers warned that the association was not strong and that the data was hard to make sense of because there's so many confounders meaning other factors besides cell phone
usage that could have explained why people ended up with brain cancer then in 2015 more than 200 scientists petitioned the World Health Organization and United Nations for rules around nonionizing emfs and referen the 2011 decision to classify it as a potential carcinogen the scientists argued that radiation emissions from wireless devices might be harmful at levels deemed safe under the existing guidelines the petition came on the heels of a study that showed the heaviest users of cell phones and cordless phones were somewhat more likely to be diagnosed with meningiomas which is a type of slow growing
brain tumor but the association was again too weak for research archers to conclude that cell phone use generally caused meningiomas some more recent Studies have been done and they do suggest a link between cell phone usage and cancer or biological changes that might enable tumor formation but all of them had flaws or substantial limitations so the results have been framed as a reason to do more research and not as clear evidence that cell phone radiation is a risk factor for brain cancer for example one 2018 study found that high levels of radio frequency radiation caused
cancerous heart tumors in male rats and mice the study certainly made headlines but researchers said the results could not be generalized to humans first of all the way that the rodents were exposed to radiation in the study was not how we use cell phones and at the end of the day rats aren't people it's a good first step and maybe it'll guide further research but it doesn't give us a clear answer as of yet moving on in 2020 the FDA published a review of 125 studies exploring that potential link between radio frequency radiation and cancer
they looked at a mix of animal research and observational studies on humans they found no consistent pattern to support a link there are good reasons to keep investigating these potential health risks of cell phones they've evolved a lot since they became popular and so has the way we use them also we're no longer talking primarily about adults today most kids have their own cell phones and kids don't necessarily respond the same way as adults do when they're exposed to potential environmental health risks like toxic chemicals or viruses so maybe the same will go for EMF
it's important for scientific knowledge to keep up with this modern technology so the call for more research isn't really a reason to Panic it's the responsible path forward but let's go back to Bluetooth headphones which became a bigger part of this whole conversation in 2019 when a medium article that argued airpods might be dangerous and reference the 2015 wh petition the fact that the wh petition had not not specifically mentioned Bluetooth headphones didn't seem to even matter the article came out the same year as airpods did so they were already in the spotlight the medium
article also brought up the idea that the amount of radiation emitted by wireless devices isn't the only factor in their potential health effects see wireless tech emits short births of electromagnetic energy called pulses which the article said might be able to cause cell damage at a lower intensity level than non- pulsing radiation could one expert said this factor is ignored by government government Health agencies and therefore isn't captured by safety guidelines there's some rat research on electromagnetic pulses but as far as human health goes this is not exactly an evidence-based belief but is someone out
there actually making sure your headphones aren't blasting you with dangerous radiation yes the Federal Communications Commission or FCC sets maximum exposure limits for radiation emitted from cell phones cell phone towers and all wireless devices sold in the US these radiation limits are based on how much radio frequency energy can be safely absorbed into the body and they're lower than what's been deemed safe in research that means there's actually a built-in margin of safety the rate at which you absorb radiation from a device is called its specific absortion rate this rate is based on emissions measured
from the device when it's operating at its highest possible power level specific absorption rates for Bluetooth headphones don't come anywhere near the FCC radiation limit this is true no matter which brand or kind you have airpods have unfortunately been singled out as more dangerous than over the head Bluetooth headphones because they supposedly emit five times as much radiation and maybe that they sit directly inside your ear canal so they're closer to the brain but the five times number it's a myth and the radiation from airpods is well within the safer use range recent models emit
a maximum of 8% of the FCC radiation limit and that's the safe limit so 8% of the the safe limit that being said skepticism around wireless devices is widespread enough that the FCC published suggestions for how to decrease radiation exposure from them while also clarifying at the same time that the agency does not endorse any need to take reduction measures but where does all of this leave us you're exposed to nonionizing radiation from so many devices in your life it's all around you exposure from Bluetooth is just a small piece of that pie Bluetooth worries
were and are mainly based on the possibility of cell phones causing harm and we currently don't have strong evidence that cell phones are harmful at least in that sense and the leap to Bluetooth is probably a huge one given that they release so much fewer EMF than cell phones and that's because cell phones need to communicate with cell towers miles away a Bluetooth device only needs enough radio frequency to connect with a phone or laptop that's in the other room less distance equals less energy and probably less damage one thing about headphones though that understandably
makes people on easy is that it's common to wear them for hours on end and on a daily basis so this heavy usage is typical behavior and if there's any chance are dangerous to use and you've been using them a lot I can understand those implications can be scary but remember that right now studies about cell phones and cancer that have involved humans have not been able to support a cause a link while we can say with 100% certainty that there isn't one but it's a good thing when researchers keep looking for something bad and
can't even find it if you're nervous about radio frequency radiation exposure you could always take airpod brakes or alternate between Wireless and wired headphones in fact it might be a good idea to spend more time headphone free and cell phone free for reasons unrelated to brain cancer fears like the potential impact on your hearing and accident risk and cell phone addiction cuz that's a real thing so on my truth or scarce scale where zero is complete BS and 10 is absolute truth this claim gets a 3.5 click here to check out my reaction to some
of the reddit's worst doctor interactions some of these were absolutely awful click here to check that out and as always stay happy and healthy [Music]
