Here’s What A Doctor Has To Say About Wireless Earphones And Cancer

It sometimes feels like if you followed every “may cause death” warning out there, you’d never get a chance to live.

For a while, eggs were bad, and then they weren’t (within reason). 

Last year, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency For Research On Cancer (IARC) said that aspartame ― the artificial sweetener used in diet fizzy drinks ― would be announced as “possibly carcinogenic [cancer-causing] to humans.” 

But the group aspartame was placed into ― category 2B ― is the same one as pickled veg and aloe vera are found in, doctor and medical mythbuster Dr Karan Rajan said at the time. 

In a recent TikTok, he addressed claims your AirPods could be damaging your health. 

What did he say about wireless headphones and cancer? 

He explained that all wireless Bluetooth devices, from your phone to your laptop and over-ear headphones, are “emitting low-level radiofrequency radiation, also known as EMFs”. 

“It’s also true that EMFs have been classified as type 2B carcinogens ― ‘possibly carcinogenic,’” by the International Agency For Research On Cancer, he continued.

But those groups matter, he stressed. 

For instance, group one refers to stuff that directly causes cancer, like alcohol and tobacco. 

“But in group 2A, and especially group 2B, there are items here that have no proof of cancer causation,” the doctor added. 

Group 2B puts coffee and pickled veg into the same slot as our wireless earphones. 

“A lot of the ‘evidence’ for stuff [in group 2B] is based on low-quality animal studies or just pure correlation,” Dr Rajan explained. 

“The type of radiation from your Airpods [and other wireless earbuds] is non-ionising radiation… so low in energy it can’t damage your cells.” 

Are there any other reasons to stay away from wireless earbuds?

Well, they do produce noise, so listening to them for too long and at too loud a volume may damage your ears.

“The only reason for limiting the amount of hours you use your AirPods in the day is to protect your hearing,” Dr Rajan said, “not to worry about cancer.” 

A 2019 article “misleadingly linking [wireless earphones] to cancer” led to a petition to provide a warning against their use, Cancer Research UK said at the time.

“But there isn’t good evidence that the electromagnetic fields produced by these devices cause cancer and studies involving large groups of people haven’t found any increase in cancer risk from being exposed to this type of radiation,” Cancer Research UK said in response back then.

Pretty good news for me, who wrote this whole thing with my headphones in…