“Truly wireless” earbuds such as AirPods are becoming more and more common, but there is a health concern about the level of radiation they give off. Since they have no wires, the headphones have to use data transmitters to communicate with each other and sync from earbud to earbud as well as to your phone.

According to an article on www.cio.com titled Are truly wireless earbuds (like AirPods) safe? The microwave transmitter inside the wireless earbuds is very close to your brain while the earbuds sit in your ear, the transmitter itself carries low levels of radiation.  

Dr. Devra Lee Davis, founder and president of the Environmental Health Trust, a nonprofit research and education organization focused on environmental health hazards said, “We have no proof of safety.” He goes on to add that the low level of radiation does not cook your brain tissue but that the very low levels have shown to cause biological effects. Research from the American Cancer Society and other organizations say that Bluetooth headsets are actually safer than putting a cell phone to your head.

At the end of the day the decision is yours, do you want to be exposed to these low levels of radiation from your earbuds or do you want to be exposed to them directly from your phone (which essentially does the same thing when taking a phone call)?

Sophomore Hector Pelayo said, “I don’t care, I will get cancer if it means not listening to people.”

Sophomore Nate Armstrong said, “The wires give me a rash.”

Freshman, Erik Factor said,  “I didn’t know, I don’t really care as long as I don’t get cancer.”

Freshman, Noor Hamad stated, “I don’t care.”

Sophomore, Elias Luquin said ,”I think that if their data was conclusive and that radiation causes long term health effects then we should take steps to prevent those health risks. But since the product is relatively new and there has not been time to study long term effects we should only change the internals of the product to reduce/remove their radiation.”

Senior, Sergio Luquin stated, “I didn’t know that’s kind of wild.”

Students don’t seem to show concern of the low radiation levels within “truly wireless earbuds”.