No Established Evidence That AirPods Cause Brain Tumours, As Claimed in Viral Post

Urvashi Kapoor | Jagran New Media's Fact-Checking website Vishvas News debunked a post claiming that Apple’s earphones can cause brain damage. The claim reads: “AirPods direct radiation and Bluetooth signals directly to the brain." The caption alongside the claim warns people to ditch their AirPods “unless you want brain tumour.”

The claim is viral in multiple identical posts. In the investigation done by Vishvas News, the viral post is found to be misleading. There is no established evidence that scientists have declared AirPods a health hazard. Also, AirPods emit levels of radiation far below the established limits, and less than cellphones.

Meedan’s Health desk report suggests, exposure to electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields (EMF) can come from natural as well as man-made sources. AirPods emit low-level radiation in the form of electromagnetic radiation called radiofrequency energy. This type of radiation is also emitted by mobile phones and other wireless devices.

Vishvas News contacted some scientific experts, to elicit their views on the viral claim.

Vishvas News contacted Dr Abhishek Juneja, Senior Consultant Neurologist, Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, Dr Juneja’s Neuro Centre, New Delhi, and sought his views, on the claim linking emissions from earphones with brain tumours. Commenting on the viral claim, said, “Based on the research till date, AirPods have not shown to be emitting any harmful radiation causing brain dysfunction or tumour.”

Vishvas News contacted Professor Rodney Croft, Chair of the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and Director, Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research (ACEBR) for his views on the claim. Prof Croft said in an email response, “The claim that “AirPods are directing radiation and Bluetooth signals directly into the brain, and you shouldn’t wear them if you don’t want a brain tumour” is false.

There are two important misleading aspects to this claim:

1) The radiofrequency radiation that comes from the AirPods’ Bluetooth (and which is similar to that from mobile phones, TV and radio broadcast antennas, baby monitors, etc), cannot cause cancer (brain tumours). This error appears to be due to a confusion between ‘radioactive’ and ‘non-radioactive’ radiation, in that it is only ‘radioactive’ radiation that can cause cancer, whereas radiofrequency radiation is not radioactive (regardless of how strong the exposure is). That is, the radiation from the AirPods’ Bluetooth is not radioactive, and does not cause cancer.

2) To cause other types of harm (generally due to heating), radiofrequency radiation needs to be at a level that is far higher than the safety limits set by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), whereas the levels emitted by AirPods are many times lower than the ICNIRP limits. The radiation from AirPods is therefore not capable of causing any harm.”

Vishvas News also contacted Dr. S. Murali, Secretary, IARP, Radiation Safety System Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, Maharashtra. He said: “In my opinion, the usage of technical gadgets should not be construed to be harmful – resulting in complications. We concluded that AirPods emit low-level radiation but experts suggest that there is no evidence that using them causes brain tumours.

This fact-checked story by Vishvas News and its step-by-step debunking process can be read here.

To read other fact-checked stories by Vishvas News click here.