Most people ask me this question because they have heard that Bluetooth is bad and can cause cancer. The assumption most people have is that corded headsets are safer. And they are correct. It is a good assumption.
When comparing the EMF Radiation emitted by Bluetooth headsets vs. corded headsets, Bluetooth headsets (or earbuds) emit much more radiation. Therefore they are much more dangerous. They are basically mini cell phone towers that you stick in your ears. (There are literally hundreds of peer reviewed scientific studies that link RF Radiation [which Bluetooth is] to things like cancer, sleep problems, DNA damage and infertility.)
However when you use a corded headset you still get RF Radiation emitted in your ears, just not quite as much. Some RF Radiation travels right up the cord like an antenna into your ears. So a corded headset (as it comes out of the box) is still unsafe. But there is a way to make a corded headset much safer. Alls you need to do is add something called a ferrite bead to the base of the cord.
Corded Headset With A Ferrite Bead
Have you ever seen the black cylinder on the cord of a laptop charger, or the charger of some other electronic device? It is called a ferrite bead. What a ferrite bead does is it creates an electric magnetic field that absorbs frequency spikes and surges that could travel up the cord and hurt the electronic circuit boards in the device. RF Radiation traveling up a cord like it was an antenna is basically a higher frequency electricity just like the spikes and surges ferrite beads were designed to stop. Putting a ferrite bead on the headset cord absorbs the RF Radiation so that it does not travel further up the cord.
They make ferrite beads that you can put on cords manually. And they are very inexpensive. The picture on the right is the ferrite bead that I put on the base of my corded cellphone headset. A ferrite bead like the one shown here will filter off about 95% of the RF Radiation from running up the cord. This makes your corded headset a whole lot safer than either the corded headset alone, or a Bluetooth headset.
Bluetooth Headphones Radiation Test
Anything “Bluetooth” emits the same frequency of RF Radiation that a microwave oven uses to cook your food. (So basically you are cooking your brain.) The wattage is obviously much less, but it is the exact same radiation.
In the video below you get to see me test the RF Radiation emitted from both a pair of Bluetooth earbuds, and a normal Samsung Galaxy smartphone. I use a high frequency meter to show you exactly how much RF Radiation they emit. I also demonstrate how to use a ferrite bead. The video is short but really worth watching. You get to see visually exactly what I am talking about.
RF Radiation Dangers
There literally have been hundreds of peer reviewed scientific studies that link RF Radiation to health problems such as cancer, DNA damage (especially in a fetus) and male sterility. These are non thermal health problems, meaning they are not the result of the radiation heating anything. However RF Radiation also cause thermal issues. For example, not only does RF Radiation cook food in a microwave oven, but it heats people’s skin enough to make them disperse (up to 1,000 meters away) when used by the US military’s microwave crowd control weapon called “Active Denial System“.
In 2011 the World Health Organization, (an organization I am no fan of, but I digress), finally was forced to classify RF Radiation as a possible “carcinogenic”, meaning “cancer causing”. If you really want to do some serious research on this subject if you go to the “scientific studies” link I have in the above paragraph, you will find links to some of the hundreds of studies I describe above.
In an article entitled “Bluetooth vs. wired headphones radiation – Safe or not?” by the website descriptive.audio, they say “Wired headphones do not emit any type of RF waves so they are the safer option if you need a pair for long-term use. They still emit EMF radiation but on a very small scale.” I agree, except I am not in favor of directing any EMF radiation that close to my brain. Putting a simple ferrite bead at the bottom of a corded headset, filters off all but the lowest, least harmful frequencies.
Another article with a very similar title “Bluetooth vs Wired Headphones Radiation: Should You Worry?” they make the same argument I always see made by the tech industry, tech industry funded non-prophet organizations, and government sources, which is “non-ionizing EMR is much safer due to its low energy levels that cannot alter atoms”.
However I prefer to listen to the vast number of independent sources who don’t profit from the tech industry, or who don’t receive gifts and political donations from them. On the scientific studies page of this website I describe an link to many independently funded scientific studies that link non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation to health problems such as DNA damage, cancer, tumors, crib death and infertility.
Car Stereo Bluetooth
Now they have Bluetooth in the newer car stereo systems that connect to your cellphone so that you can play music or talk on your cellphone through your car stereo systems. This is a great hands free feature but is not so great in regards to how much RF Radiation it exposes you and your family to. Remember Bluetooth emits the exact same RF Radiation at the exact same frequency that your microwave oven uses to cook food. It is like having a WiFi router in your dashboard running at full power whenever you are in your car. The Bluetooth in your car runs at an even higher power level than a Bluetooth headset. Plus you must turn on the Bluetooth of your cellphone to use it as well. With Bluetooth you are always getting a double dose.
Bluetooth Baby Monitors
There are a lot of baby monitors that are either regular WiFi or Bluetooth WiFi. In the video below I was doing a video series where I was going room by room through a home and testing for RF Radiation in each room. You will be surprised how far away the baby monitor in this kids bedroom maxed out the high frequency meter I was using. It shocked even me. (You can see the rest of the video series at The Protect Your Family From RF Radiation Guide)
And our infants are our most vulnerable to RF Radiation. Their heads are not fully formed and their skulls have not yet fully grown together. And yet we stick a baby monitor sometimes inches away from our kid’s heads. Most parents who think that standing next to a running microwave oven is safe, still would never put their infant inches away from the oven while they are using it to cook their dinner. Yet they stick a baby monitor that close which emits the very same RF Radiation. (See “7 Examples of Low Emission Baby Monitors“)
Other Bluetooth Devices
Many homes nowadays have many other devices in their homes that are wireless such as Bluetooth. There are things like Alexa and Echo AI devices (a little too big brother for my mind, but again I digress.) often in multiple rooms in the house. When you have devices like that you are just microwaving yourself 24/7.
Smart things like a WiFi home thermostat, garage door opener, and I have even seen a wireless sprinkler control box. I have been in homes where families are just bathing in wireless radiation from twenty different devices at once. It makes no sense at all to me. But then usually these people have no idea that there is any harm in having these devices around.
Cellphone Radiation
Besides RF Radiation traveling up the cord or from a Bluetooth earbud into your ear, there are other ways that we are exposed to this cellphone radiation. The cellphone itself emits multiple types of RF Radiation depending on whether it is connecting through Bluetooth, accessing GPS or data, or sending or receiving a phone call. This RF Radiation is emitted at various strengths at various times. But whenever it is emitting radiation it does so in all directions. And cellphone emitted RF Radiation is particularly dangerous because so often the cellphone is so close to our bodies.
If you go to the “Cellphone Radiation Protection Items” page of this website, you will find various very important items that help protect us from cellphone RF Radiation. There is an item called a “Radiation Blocking Cellphone Case” which is super important. It is a cell phone EMF protection case that blocks almost all of the RF Radiation that is emitted through one side of the cellphone. If you blocked all sides of the cellphone, the phone would not be able to ring or get a signal.
A case like this is used by keeping that side of the case toward your body, if you have to hold it up to your head, or put it in a pocket. It is not as good at blocking RF Radiation as the ferrite bead on a corded headset, so one should still avoid holding the phone up to one’s ear whenever possible. Use the corded headset with the ferrite bead. However, it still blocks a lot of the radiation. Some still comes around that side of the case, but most does not.
Another important protection linked to on the Cellphone Radiation Protection Items’ page is two different types of steel mesh buckets or baskets. RF Radiation has a very hard time traveling though parallel lines of conductive metal. These buckets block around 95% of the RF radiation coming out of a cellphone. These are great for setting your phone in while working at a desk, or while you are sleeping. They work the best if they are set on something that is at least as high as your head and at least 4 feet away. Your phone will still get a signal and still ring. I highly recommend you going to that page and checking those protection items out.
Final Thoughts
Well I hope that this article has been educational and helpful. That is always my goal. I would like to recommend one more time that you visit the “Scientific Studies” page of this website. There you will find some of the many scientific studies that prove some of the dangers discussed in this article. Thank you for visiting this site and taking the time to read this article.
Please also see our articles entitled “Is Sleeping With Bluetooth Headphones Bad?” and “Is Bluetooth Harmful To Babies?“
