Do wireless headphones emit harmful levels of radiation that can have a significantly negative impact on health? No, that's not true: There's no convincing evidence to support the claim that low-level fields used in wireless headphones can be dangerous and cause serious health issues like cancer. Research of the American Cancer Society (ACS) states that non-ionizing radiation lacks sufficient energy to damage DNA directly, the way that ionizing waves do.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok (archived here) where it was published by @someonetoldthetruth on May 22, 2023. The text overlay reads:
The radiation from wireless headphones!!! Your brain is irradiated with this every day.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Jun 1 07:37:34 2023 UTC)
In the 59-second clip, a man claims that emissions from wireless headphones reach extremely harmful levels of radio frequencies, and their use would be dangerous. He supports his claim by comparing the radiation levels in an urban environment with those measured directly next to wireless headphones, using an RF power meter.
That's misleading. There is currently no consistent evidence indicating that low-level electromagnetic fields (EMF) non-ionizing radiation exposure from sources like WIFI routers, cellphones or Bluetooth wireless headphones poses an increased risk of cancer in humans. Unlike radioactive materials (ionizing radiation) for example, which can cause cancer and cellular damage with high doses of exposure.
An article published on Apr 25, 2013, by the National Institutes of Health states that Bluetooth devices, such as wireless earpieces, produce far fewer electromagnetic fields than cellphones, and they are considered harmless. In fact, according to experts, the risk of hearing loss from loud music is far greater than the low-level non-ionizing radiation emitted from Bluetooth wireless earpieces.
