4 ms·

I've never been a fan of holding an active transmitter (cell phone) against the side of my head, preferring to use either speakerphone or a corded headset of so

I've never been a fan of holding an active transmitter (cell phone) against the side of my head, preferring to use either speakerphone or a corded headset of some type. But I wonder: how much danger does a Bluetooth wireless headset present compared to the phone itself?

senectus1 8y ago
i remember when bluetooth ear pieces first came out they had warnings on them about extended use may cause drying out of the eyeball. I distinctly remember it on a Ericsson ear piece (single ear fold out). I've noticed that these devices dont have that warning anymore...
rossdavidh 8y ago
I have the impression that, since the era of smartphones, people actually talk on their cellphones less, and text more. If so, and if there were anything to this article's posited link, then we would expect the rate of tumors to drop again in the coming years. Just a speculation.
- parvenu74 8y ago
  1. Fewer tumors with texting, yes, especially when fatal car crashes due to texting are factored in. 2. Texting, especially long-form MMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, etc., replace the need for phone calls in a lot of cases. I do think of my iPhone as a portable computer that also has voice-communications capability...
icebraining 8y ago
It's probably very hard to tell, specially since cellphones will dynamically adapt their transmission power depending on the conditions - anything from 0.7mW to 4.4mW[1]. By contrast, a bluetooth device of class 2 (most headsets) is limited to 2.5mW[2], but who knows how much they actually use within that limit. [1] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=7879218 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=7879218 [2] https://www.sans.edu/cyber-research/security-laboratory/article/bluetooth https://www.sans.edu/cyber-research/security-laboratory/arti...
ellinokon 8y ago
My father sought to answer the same questions after he started to fear what transmitters might be doing to him/us. As far as I understand his findings, the "strength" of the signal could potentially be as high with blutooth as with 3G/4G, for use with his devices in his environment. His recommendation is therefore to avoid all transmitters close to your body, and prefer wires at all times. All anecdotal ofc, and I have not in any way verified the instruments he used for his tests.
yaantc 8y ago
Bluetooth class 3 is 1 mW peak power, class 2 is 2.5 mW peak power. Those are the most relevant for a headset. For a cell phone, the peak power for 2G is 2W, while for 4G/LTE it's 200 mW. Those are peak transmit power. In practice the actual power will be lower for BT. For cellular it depends very much on the frequency band used. For low band the phone will mostly be far from the peak. For high bands the device will mostly be at peak power or close most of the time.
- calebm 8y ago
  Nice analysis. Just thinking of it intuitively, the cell phone transmitter has to send data several km, whereas the bluetooth only has to transmit a few meters. Couple that with the inverse square law, and a bluetooth headset sounds much lower power.
kpozin 8y ago
What if you're using Bluetooth headphones for 8-10 hours per day for music / blocking out noise?

senectus1 8y ago

i remember when bluetooth ear pieces first came out they had warnings on them about extended use may cause drying out of the eyeball. I distinctly remember it on a Ericsson ear piece (single ear fold out). I've noticed that these devices dont have that warning anymore...

rossdavidh 8y ago

I have the impression that, since the era of smartphones, people actually talk on their cellphones less, and text more. If so, and if there were anything to this article's posited link, then we would expect the rate of tumors to drop again in the coming years. Just a speculation.

parvenu74 8y ago
1. Fewer tumors with texting, yes, especially when fatal car crashes due to texting are factored in. 2. Texting, especially long-form MMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, etc., replace the need for phone calls in a lot of cases. I do think of my iPhone as a portable computer that also has voice-communications capability...

icebraining 8y ago

It's probably very hard to tell, specially since cellphones will dynamically adapt their transmission power depending on the conditions - anything from 0.7mW to 4.4mW[1]. By contrast, a bluetooth device of class 2 (most headsets) is limited to 2.5mW[2], but who knows how much they actually use within that limit. [1] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=7879218 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=7879218 [2] https://www.sans.edu/cyber-research/security-laboratory/article/bluetooth https://www.sans.edu/cyber-research/security-laboratory/arti...

ellinokon 8y ago

My father sought to answer the same questions after he started to fear what transmitters might be doing to him/us. As far as I understand his findings, the "strength" of the signal could potentially be as high with blutooth as with 3G/4G, for use with his devices in his environment. His recommendation is therefore to avoid all transmitters close to your body, and prefer wires at all times. All anecdotal ofc, and I have not in any way verified the instruments he used for his tests.

yaantc 8y ago

Bluetooth class 3 is 1 mW peak power, class 2 is 2.5 mW peak power. Those are the most relevant for a headset. For a cell phone, the peak power for 2G is 2W, while for 4G/LTE it's 200 mW. Those are peak transmit power. In practice the actual power will be lower for BT. For cellular it depends very much on the frequency band used. For low band the phone will mostly be far from the peak. For high bands the device will mostly be at peak power or close most of the time.

calebm 8y ago
Nice analysis. Just thinking of it intuitively, the cell phone transmitter has to send data several km, whereas the bluetooth only has to transmit a few meters. Couple that with the inverse square law, and a bluetooth headset sounds much lower power.

kpozin 8y ago

What if you're using Bluetooth headphones for 8-10 hours per day for music / blocking out noise?