Do Bluetooth® Headsets Cause Cancer?

All types of EM radiation have the potential to initiate cancer, even non-ionizing radiation. That being said, it is quite unlikely for non-ionizing radiation to cause cancer. The more you use your device and the closer it is to your body, the more likely you will be to have bad luck. It has happened before and it will happen again. Just don't be stupid and you'll probably be okay.

I am new to the forum. My name is Mark. I suffer from a mild degree of sensitivity to cellphones. When I speak on the phone I get a tingling feeling on my face and hands. The headaches occur after a few minutes. I searched on google for a solution. I read that an bluetooth air tube radiation free headset can help, so I did a little research and got one. I have to say that it actually helps.

I do not have to hold the phone to my head so the tingling sensation stopped both head and cheek. I do not want to advertise anything because that usually gets people upset, although I really recommend looking in to this. If it helps me, it will help everybody.

What is the difference when you stay near a person with bluetooth?

If bluetooth range is 10m then it doesn't matter. You are under radiation the whole time. I don't believe that putting phone or bluetooth headset 1m away will help.

I have been using a bluetooth headset at work for over seven years and always wear it on my right ear and the piece extends around and over next to my head with the microphone portion.

I recently was diagnosed with skin cancer (basal cell carcinoma) which just happens to be on my right side a little below my temple area. My headset does not rest on this part of my skin but is very near that area. Could using this headset have anything to possibly do with that? Just a thought I had today when I switched to start putting the headset on my left ear while my other area heals after surgery.

Look here. Scare tactics, my foot. I was recently diagnosed with a rare parotid tumor cancer called MEC for short. I used a cell phone almost every day for 20 years on the side the tumor was on.

I will probably die with it or from it, or who knows? Either way, it can kill you. Give it enough time and your cells will mutate. Everyone is different, but do you want to take that chance? No holding my phone to my face for extended long periods again. Speaker or headset from now on!

One question we should be asking is: Is it better to use a Bluetooth headset than putting a phone next to the ear?

Well, a phone has to be powerful enough to communicate with a cell tower that could be some distance away. It transmits up to 3 watts of energy. A Bluetooth headset uses about 0.001 of a Watt with a range of 10 meters, considerably less, 1/3000th of the energy. If you are concerned about Bluetooth headsets, yet still want to use them, I suggest getting one using Bluetooth 4.0 (new standard that use less power) and where the transceiver element is separate using earphones connected to it by wires (those really concerned should look for the airtube versions). This keeps the Bluetooth part well away from your head.

By placing the transceiver box over your clothes (thus away from your body), you are reducing any health effects to virtually zero. Put your phone in your handbag or suitcase and you should by considerably safer from any ill effects.

@anon943305: He told his experience and for myself the relationship between headache and bluetooth is a research subject for scientists so the safest thing people could do is to not use headsets unless it is necessary.

@anon924405: You are just saying you wore a Bluetooth headset and you have headaches, but you did not show any relationship between them.

I am a truck driver and required to use a bluetooth set. I bought me a nice Platronics Voyager set. After about a year of using it I discovered that I would get a headache on the side of the head specifically where the bluetooth is placed.

After about three years, the headaches got a bit worse and my hearing got worse in my right ear, and that's the side that I use the bluetooth on, 65-70 percent of the time. I'm only 30 years old and I decided not to use bluetooth, because I'm suspecting it can lead to serious health problems.

To all of you saying you will use a wired headset rather than the bluetooth headset, you are wrong. Cell phones put out more radiation the bluetooth devices, and the wired earphone connection is just acting like an antenna. If the bluetooth burned your brain, this would be happening more so with wire (becoming an antenna) earphones.

Does everyone on this forum use microwaves? Now that is a problem, really. Not only because of the radiation, but the food DNA and molecular structure is altered.

I haven't used a microwave in close to three years. My doctor in Mexico warned me about them long before that. I finally took his advice.

Other than that, I use a Bluetooth every single day. I think the cancer threats are just scare tactics.

My former friend, colleague and client - and advertisement executive - used his cellphone almost non-stop - starting 1994. He recently died of a brain tumor. He was 53.

Anybody that tells you, that you can get a tumor or cancer from a Bluetooth device is either a quack, and/or clearly does not know what they are talking about.

Bluetooth devices do not emit enough energy to burn, or jump an electron out of an atoms orbit (referred to as DNA damage), or even irritate any tissue.

Other than chemical paths and repeated mechanical irritation, these are the only known ways to bring on cancer that are not genetic. The slight heat increase from a Bluetooth device can barely be measured, let alone do any irritation of tissue.

To further prove the point, a cell phone has tens of thousands times more energy than a Bluetooth device,

and at almost one thousand times the frequency. They can't even prove they cause tumors or cancer. However, I choose to use my cell phone directly to my ear as little as possible.

A Bluetooth device worn on the ear, is more likely to cause cancer through direct mechanical tissue irritation, (chemical leaching of the plastic, rubbing, etc), than RF energy at that level.

Maybe you all should stop wearing glasses? The re-radiation from a pair of glasses, at harmonic wavelengths from proximate sources is probably comparable to Bluetooth energy levels.

I cannot use my mobile phone because I get a headache on the side of my head and ear. Even if somebody near my right side talks on a mobile phone, I get a headache which lasts longer than an hour. Now I always answer my calls through my mobile speaker and never bring mobile phone near to my ears.

Mostly, I use a headphone with a wire which connects with the mobile through wire -- the one we always get with a mobile phone when we buy it. That is a safe way for me.

Thank goodness for all of the doctors in here. I now can confirm that RF waves are linked to cancer. *Sarcasm*.

Never mind the trace amounts of asbestos fibers found everywhere on the planet and some of the most carcinogenic components known to man are found in peanut butter, asphalt (being super carcinogenic), petroleum everywhere. Really people...

Just got a new bluetooth headset. After reading all this, I decided to keep it on the shelf!

I had a bluetooth hands-free kit installed in my car, and would leave my cell phone in my pocket when connecting to it. Six months later I was diagnosed with testicular cancer on the side that the cell phone would always be. With cancer rates increasing as wireless/bluetooth technology use is also, my belief is that there is a link. Just my opinion!

Oh dear, what confusion!

If you are that worried, stop using it all!

Get a pager and use call boxes! (joke).

Patient: "Doctor, doctor! Every time I poke myself in the eye, it really hurts!"

Doctor: "Well stop poking yourself in the eye then!" Common sense, really? No?

I use my phone as little as possible, but on a different note, I use Sennheiser bluetooth headphones for music from my PC, wearing them almost every waking hour, unless I am out.

I don't get any headaches at all. My ears get a bit warm, but that's because of the 'over ear' style of the headphones.

I have tried a few bluetooth headsets, and it's damn uncomfortable having something wedged in your ear and yes, that gave me headaches or was it an ear ache? Regardless, I simply stopped using it and now I send texts instead with the occasional short call. No headaches.

I wear my bluetooth practically all day and night, and so far have had no problems whatsoever!

How about bluetooth keyboards for iMac's? Does anyone know if they are equally dangerous?

Most of the posts here have reasonable information about tumors etc. I'm not taking the risk. I'm smashing my bluetooth earpiece right now. Better to be safe than sorry, I think.

My friend's sons wife recently lost her baby which was due to be born. The child was dead inside her. The doctors couldn't figure it out. Soon afterward, she went to have a checkup because she still wasn't feeling well. The docs found two tumors on her right breast: cancer. She had both breasts removed not long after that.

Today I learned that she kept her cellphone in her bra always. Guess where the two tumors were? Exactly where the cellphone was kept in her bra. Coincidence? I think not. I'm revising all my habits so far as cellphones are concerned starting today. I have always used a bluetooth -- hardly ever have i put a cellphone next to my head. I thought bluetooths were suppose to alleviate possible radiation. Now I am very skeptical. We are guinea pigs for the corporations, is what we are.

I feel that anyone who claims that there is not a potential health implication with mobile phone use is ignoring the facts. It is, however, convenient to say there isn't a problem because then it makes us all feel better as well as protecting the widespread vested interests.

To all the 'RF Engineers' and 'experts' out there:

Do you also have degrees in Biology or medicine?

When I was studying mechanical engineering at university, we didn't have classes on health effects.

For couple of years, my wife always complained about her head hurting every time she used her Motorola cellphone. I had always dismissed that as something that she made up as an excuse not to answer her cell phone anymore, until one day I used the phone to talk for an hour with a friend, and man, right after, my head hurt badly and it lasted for several days.

Now I do definitely believe there is something to these EMF waves going right through our brains like a blitzkrieg, and I would not talk longer than a minute or two with it.

I have many clients that had experiences similar to the ones I am reading here, but they went away when they used a ZeroPoint Earth Heart, and it is satisfaction guaranteed.

i am convinced that emissions from my bluetooth headset are causing headaches. I have no doubt at all. I've tried three experiments to be certain. At first I noticed I had very bad headaches after using the headset about four months ago. I stopped using it and reverted to a wired headset for the following month, and no headaches, having read other posts swearing that it couldn't possibly be from the "radiation" and insisting that the "heat" that I felt inside my head while wearing it was caused by it not "fitting properly." So, I drained the battery completely and wore it for several days - no headache at all.

Yesterday, for the first time in over four months, I used the bluetooth headset again for approximately 45 minutes. I had to stop using it because of a splitting headache that began to appear after about 30 minutes or so into the call.

I could literally feel heat inside my head - heat that magically appeared exactly on the side of the head closest to the earbud and the only time I ever feel that sensation is when i use the cell phone immediately next to my ear or use the bluetooth headset.

I have read many articles on the subject from self-proclaimed experts claiming that the radiation is so small it cannot possibly have any health risks but I vehemently disagree. cell phones and bluetooth are a health risk.

I encourage you to check out data on the effect the RF waves have on brain cells. They, in fact, stimulate receptors that should rarely be needed and exhaust them At that point, the cells can no longer expel the toxins that flow through them every day. This applies not only to phones but bluetooth devices. That's why I'm using a wired headset.

I bought a bluetooth device two years ago. I only take it out when I shower. I even sleep with it in. The only problem I experienced was a rash on my ear with some green bumps. That was because the ear piece should be cleaned at least once every six months.

I have been using a bluetooth headset for the past four months. I realized that, any time I used it for long, I feel as if my left ear is getting blocked. Do I conclude that the bluetooth technology is dangerous to my health?

You know what's really absurd? The assumption that because one cause of colon cancer risk has been discovered, there is no way the excessive exposure to radiation could be another cause.

If you told me, "I had goat milk once," I wouldn't respond, "That's absurd! I had milk once, and it definitely came from a cow." Who says cancer is a thing of only one possible origin? You obviously just wanted to play the expert because you had colon cancer yourself. I'm sorry, but the people who fixed you are the medical experts; not you.

This is absurd. Claims of colon cancer? I had colon cancer and it is now found in DNA strains within a certain bloodline. I didn't carry my cellphone even near my colon. Cell phones weren't even around when I started to have problems.

The ignorant plethora of banter on this forum is very amusing. Of course, don't listen to the engineers here, because everyone loves fear and panic. It's sexier than the truth. Here's a thought.: People should stop wasting the beauty of words with unscientific assumptions.

Cell phones cause damage to biological tissue! How do I know? Because I have always kept my cell phone in my lower left pocket, sometimes slept with it there. Didn't think anything of it until I noticed numbness and a slight tingling sensation. It hasn't gone away. I can live with it. I try to use speaker phone as much as possible now and really have to consider whether it is worth it. I would like to know if the damage is permanent and if it will get worse. Thanks, Wayne

All of your little anecdotes are quite cute. I am an RF engineer and the bottom line is that there is no mechanism for bluetooth devices or cell phones to cause brain damage/cancer.

I have stopped using my cell phone. I cannot use it anymore. I m facing experiencing the bad effects (headache and sleeplessness) for two years.

Neither the headphone nor using speakers stopped it. Doctors don't even know about such problems.

I was thinking about buying a Bluetooth head phone but thanks for the all comments posted here. Please do not use the cell phones.

I sell bluetooth headsets and have not had anyone complain about having problems like the ones being said on here. The headsets come with a head band or ear holder. people found that the earholder option caused problems (weight hanging off their ear) so they changed to the head band. problem solved. Maybe it's a placebo effect.

I carried my cell phone in my left pants pocket for several years. In 2009 I was diagnosed with colon cancer in that location. Now I carry it in my purse, keeping it far away from my body. Coincidence, perhaps, but too little is known about the long-term effects.

I used a simple Bluethooth headset for a year without any problems, then I upgraded to a "better" earpiece, two channels, voice command etc. Within a month I started to experience a severe whole left side of my head, ear down to my neck, arm leg and foot is very numb. I felt dizzy and confused, then I had to assist on a weekend meeting (no cell phones allowed) and by Sunday night I was feeling less numbness.

I used it again Monday morning, and by 5 p.m., my face and all my left side was numb, like I was under anesthetic. I am really concerned about long term damage.

Please don't use mobiles for long duration calls. It is life threatening. I have observed that some tumors on head, and am worrying about those. So, please minimize the call duration time anyone who is using mobiles.

The biggest problem with earpieces is that people are more likely to make a call with the phone radiating in their pocket. The FCC requires that manufacturers warn against putting cell phones in the pocket because the radiation emitted is likely to be many times greater than the federal safety limit.

But, we don't hear about this consumer warning because it is hidden in the fine print of every user guide sold with every cell phone.

My mother was head-hunted for a new job which involved a 1 to 1 and a half hour drive - she wore and used a bluetooth headset on the way to and from work five days a week for almost two years. In 2006 she was diagnosed with a grade 4 GBM (terminal brain tumour) and died in 2008. Coincidence?

I will never know but I don't use a bluetooth headset and rarely talk on a mobile phone.

I have a related questions with a slightly different twist.

I use a bluetooth stereo headset which does not have a microphone. So, it has a bluetooth receiver, but not a transmitter.

I am not an RF engineer, but my educated guess is that a BT receiver may emit a little radiation, but very little.

Any RF engineers out there want to clarify this issue?

I was led to this panel because I was doing a research to find out why the whole right side of my head from my ear down to my neck is very numb. That's the side I wear my bluetooth most of the day. It feels like when you get an anesthesia or if water is in your ear. I am so petrified. I am about to call Dr. Cohen to see if he can zap me and if that will help.

I used to carry my cellphone in my left front pocket. After a while I noticed my leg felt hot and a little numb right there. The phone itself was completely cool to the touch, so I started to worry about radiation. After that I started carrying it only in my purse or, if I had to, in my coat pocket—basically trying to keep it as far away from my body as realistically possible. Still, I was putting it right against my head (I am an habitual left talker) sometimes for over an hour a day!

After about five or six months without the phone in my pocket, the numbness in my leg totally disappeared, however, one day I was in a rush, got distracted and put the phone back in that pocket. Didn't think anything of it. About 10 minutes later I felt a burning in my leg and realized I had stashed my phone there.

So now I am really concerned about having this thing against my skull. Would a standard computer headset (with earphones and mic) be safe to plug into it? I don't care what it looks like—I just don't want brain cancer!

So, there seems to be a more or less unanimous agreement that placing a microwave device next to your ear, an organ heavily dependent on fluids, is not a great idea, especially with the existence of these things called headphones. Fine.

What about my mouse? My hands aren't as delicate as my ears. Cancer statements worry me, even if they sound like crackpot guess-work from technophobes who wouldn't know how to update windows if it didn't do it for them.

Serious statements require serious evidence!

Also, no, you're not an engineer! 4.2 =/= 4.5! No competent engineer would be so inaccurate!

Anyway, this entire comment section is disappointing.

I was hoping we could avoid the technophobic cult-like mentality, but even the supposed engineers sound careless at best and liars at worst.

If you don't know, don't act like you know. Can we at least try to remember that? Misinformation is dangerous.

thanks for this article and discussion. Until I looked at your site, I was pretty much ready to go out and purchase a bluetooth headset for my cell phone as I thought it would be better than using the cell.

When I talk on the cell for too long, my ear gets hot and I sometimes get dizzy and nauseous. We have to face the facts that modern technology is based more on money and immediate comforts than long term health issues.

As mentioned by one of the other commentators, we have to take responsibility for our own health and that means blazing trails for our children as well.

To this day, we do not have a microwave oven in our home and nobody can convince me I need one. it may or may not be harmful but if I don't need it and choose to survive without it, I am certainly safer.

So now the challenge is to really work on lowering cell time and to keep away from the headsets which may cause more damage.

I've had a Bluetooth headset for a year and I have a little spot on the bottom of my ear that has been bothering me for a while. What should I do?

I have been using the Bluetooth ear phone for five days and now I am facing the problem in my right hand side ear. I am feeling that I am getting some vibration on the right hand side part. So I have stopped using bluetooth ear phone. It is endangering my life by using this latest technology. I personally think this is not good for health and it can cause major health disease in future. Regards, Vaibhav P., India

After using the bluetooth head on my right ear for three months, i started to get some kind of irritation, and thought it was a coincidence.

I shifted the headset to my left ear and the same thing happened.

i went to see my physician and got some ear drops, which only reduced the problem. Now I have got two irritated and aching ears, and i'm afraid it is getting worse.

I've stopped using the headset for couple of months now. Can somebody help?

I have used bluetooth headsets for five years, averaging three hours talk time a day. I keep my phone on my person all day and sleep with it turned on next to my head every night. I never experience headaches. Maybe I am lucky, maybe time will tell but I will continue to use mine until there is definite proof to prove these are unsafe!

I think the solution to all of this is hold the mobile or PS3 headset away from your head. I mean you may look like a complete idiot, but no one's going to see you! And don't worry about the sound getting through or not -- just shout to it! you could even put it on a table somewhere it's picking up sound right?

Well I actually have experienced bluetooth items like a headset.

I used it with my PS3 and well, once I played with the PS3 and the headset for four and a half hours and let me tell you my head was aching like hell. it was like hell in my head and if you want to be safe and not have brain cancer I suggest you don't get it.

Parents keep your kids' minds safe.

the cellphone popcorn videos are all hoaxes.

I manage a telephone call center and my staff wear cordless headsets 8-10 hours a day. Has anyone found any data on the safety of these devices?

Like some of the other posters, I am an electrical engineer, specifically, an RF engineer. However, unlike at least one poster, I don't believe that qualifies me to make medical claims. And, I don't make the absolutely false claim that Bluetooth devices don't emit microwave radiation. They do precisely that. In fact, they use the same band that your microwave oven uses. Yes, anon25117, you need to do your research and see that Bluetooth operates in the 2.4 GHz band, not 1-2 GHz. By the way, that band is chosen because it excites water molecules so well. Our bodies are approximately 90 percent water. Without the presence of sound and thorough investigation into the affects of this radiation with your brain well within the near-field of the antenna (if you don't know what that means you *are not* an RF engineer), I have to say I am terrified of ever placing one in my ear. I admit I don't know. But neither do any of you. And we won't ever know unless this type of testing is funded and fairly performed.

I just had a brain tumor removed from my right temporal lobe about 2 inches big. i had a bluetooth {jsba 250} that i wore every day. in fact my wife got on to me because in one month i had 2500 minutes and 2200-plus minutes in another month. i wore my bluetooth on my right ear right where the tumor was. The type of tumor is an anaplastic oligodendroglioma tumor.

Do i think that it was caused by the bluetooth not only yes but h--- yes. If anyone else has a tumor from bluetooth it would be good to find out what kind it is to compare. If you have a bluetooth, get rid of it now and get checked out now.

Anon25117, and others, should qualify such statements as "cellphones (and bluetooth) do not emit microwave radiation." Check the citations on where microwaves live in the electromagnetic spectrum and you will see various ranges starting with the broadest being 0.3 GHz to 300 GHZ and the most narrow being 3 GHz to 30 GHz. Wi-Fi operates at either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz and bluetooth operates at 2.4 GHz. A houshold microwave operates at 2.45 GHz. These ranges are in the microwave band. Also, ionizing vs. non-ionizing radiation is a matter of energy not frequency. Microwaves are not far in the spectrum from UV which is believed by most medical authorities to be the primary cause of skin cancers including malignant melanoma. The prudent person does not needlessly expose themselves to radiation sources without proper precatuions. Besides, those bluetooth headsets look really geeky, like the sliderules we older engineers used to hang on our belts. ;-)

I am an electrical Engineer as well (actually an RF Engineer) and a researcher. My opinion is that with the years strong evidence will appear that in fact correlates cancer risks in certain body areas to cellphone use. I have heard/read many cases where people develop cancer in the skin near to the ear and the side of the face where they use their cellphone the most. When I use my cellphone for more than 20 mins, my ear gets really warm. I have also experienced interference caused by the cellphone on the TV, computer and radio alarm.

My comments or the other engineer comments give no assurance of anything. Your best bet is to do your own research on what's published right now and decide on how to best care for your health having in mind that (as happened with tobacco), several years will pass before there is conclusive evidence. Also, have in mind that as has happened with many other things (high fructose corn syrup, fuel-alternate technologies etc.). There are those who pay for true research and those who pay for a research that points to one side and also those who pay to have good research be shut down.

anon27744 I have a technology tip for you. Radiation from a bluetooth device is not emitted in the shape of the external plastic. If you want to prove the argument try using something credible.

I work for UPS, and I use my cellphone/bluetooth at least 6-8 hours a day!!!

Do I have a higher chance of getting cancer?

I noticed about 5 years ago that when I touched the ridges of my skull starting from that high ridge behind my ear and going all along the base of my skull to behind the other ear, that it was very tender to the touch, as if it were bruised. I purchased a cell phone protection device here.

After about 3 months, that constant pain I had for years was 100% gone! I now have the Earth Hearts on all my cordless phones, my microwave, my blender, my hairdryer, etc.

How can we believe that a microwave signal could go from a phone in the USA to a phone to China and not be strong enough to cause damage to your brain?? How can it go through walls but not our skull? I have heard that the cell phone companies now put a disclaimer in fine print that they are not liable for any health consequences of using the phone - has anyone seen this? If so, I would call that a clue!

Well, for decades the tobacco industry had "studies" saying that tobacco used didn't cause cancer and stated that publicly. Smokers everywhere believed it until they were literally coughing themselves to death! The tobacco industry finally admitted to it after they couldn't deny the evidence any longer. The same may be true with cell phone usage. If there are legit studies out there that suggest there is a link between cell phone/bluetooth and cancer, do you think think they want that to come out? Too much $$$ at stake...the same thing could happen. They could deny it until the evidence is too overwhelming.

We have a friend who just graduated from college. We have been told that a fellow-student used a bluetooth continuously and ended up with a brain tumor. When they removed the tumor it was exactly where the bluetooth had been and was in the exact same shape as the bluetooth. Scary isn't it? I just bought a bluetooth and am now leary of using it. I think this is too close to home to call it a coincidence! Any one else out there hear of anything like this?

P.S. This young man died.

In regards to the phone causing a tv or radio to get distorted, it has happened to me on several occasions. Not only would there be lines on the tv and a weird noise, but it has also happened in my car when listening to the radio. The only reason you are denying it is because you are an engineer, and most likely part of your job is based on this technology. I advise you and everyone else to look up cell phones/popcorn online and check out how when cell phones are put next to some unpopped popcorn kernels, and the phones ring, the popcorn pops!

Imagine what it is doing to your brain.

First, the consensus is out by the majority of the scientific community (just like global warming), cell phones DO NOT cause cancer. BTW, I am an electrical engineer and cellphones (and bluetooth) DO NOT emit microwave radiation. That is ridiculous. They emit RF waves of 1-2 GHZ. That's non-ionizing, otherwise it would affect your T.V. or Computer. Put you cellphone near your screen while making a call. If your screen has distortion, file a lawsuit. My guess is unless you live in Russia where they put nuclear reactors in everything, this isn't going to happen.

i am looking for proof that bluetooth headsets don't cause brain damage/cancer.

I know that doctors are now recommending that pregnant women not only avoid using cellular phones without a hands-free device, but also that they avoid using Bluetooth technology. I think because the radiation does something bad to the developing fetus...