I was given a Motorola E815 phone and a Motorola H500 Bluetooth headset as a present. While it’s all cool and everything, I cannot find the radiation difference between using the phone and using the headset. I can find radiation values for the phone, including the value while it’s used on the body, but not the value of the headset. I’ve read the instructions, and tried Google and reviews sites, but I’m no Google expert so I can’t find the values. Anyone know if I’m getting less or more radiation when I use that model of headset with that model of phone? Or is the radiation from the Bluetooth device not comparable with radiation from the phone itself anyhow? In other words, which configuration is more likely to give me brain cancer? I know the headsets are sometimes marketed as being more “health friendly”, but I thought that only applied to wired headsets.
Not the specific product but a general discussion of bluetooth headset RF
by Ericsson.
Our present understanding of RF is that it does not cause brain cancer. Either configuration has an equal chance of health risks, since the risk in either case is exactly zero.
Alright then, although IIRC there are studies from Europe which show some causal link, I’ll redirect: which configuration will expose me to a lower level of RF radiation overall?
I’m not familiar with this model headset. Am I correct that it communicates with your cell phone, and your cell phone communicates with the cell towers?
If this is the case, then you have two possibilities. Either your cell phone is on your belt (or in your pocket, or otherwise somewhere on your body) or your cell phone is sitting somewhere relatively nearby, but not on you (sitting on your desk, for example). In the case that the cell phone is on your body, your body is now being exposed to the RF from the phone and the RF from the headset, so obviously your exposure is greater than just from the cell phone alone. The cell phone’s radiation will mostly be absorbed by areas of your body near the phone, if that somehow makes a difference to you.
In the case that the phone is not on your body, but is somewhere in the room with you, your exposure is proportional to the square of the distance you are away from the phone, so the RF exposure drops of very quickly with distance. In this case, you’d end up with less exposure than with the cell phone on your body.
As far as the health issues are concerned, this is a subject that I have followed very closely since I was in college many years ago. There have been dozens and dozens of studies by credible research groups (not quacks) that have shown links between RF and cancer, and there have also been dozens and dozens of studies that have not shown a link. If you try and research this on your own, you’ll find a HUGE volume of information out there supporting the fact that cell phones are dangerous, and you’ll find a HUGE volume of information out there supporting the fact that they are not dangerous at all. It’s almost impossible, even for someone with a EE degree like myself, to wade through all of the crap on either side of the argument. But, if it helps to put your mind at ease, there has never, ever, been a study that has shown some sort of ill effect that has also survived follow up studies and further research. Also, you’d think that if these things really were dangerous, there’d be folks all over the place dropping like flies, and so far, the death statistics aren’t showing any relationship between increased use of cell phones and increased incidences of cancers. Considering how many billions of dollars has been poured into research on the subject, you’d think that if there was some sort of ill effect that they would have been able to prove it by now.
Fair enough, thank you. I see the issue with the phone being on my person while using the headset. A nice thing is that I can locate the phone as far as 30-40 feet away from the headset, but the point may be moot anyhow. So let me make a final redirection, if I may.
Radiation stats are given for cell phones. I have not seen them given for Bluetooth devices like the Motorola H500. So the General Question to the audience is, do such stats exist for that device, and what are said stats for that device? Call it an academic interest if one must, I would nonetheless like to know how the radiation compares to the cell phone itself.
According to Astro’s link, bluetooth devices transmit about 1 mW. A typical cell phone is going to be something like 600 mW.
Bluetooth operates on a frequency of 2.45 GHz (again, from Astro’s link). Cell phones operate at somewhere between 800 MHz (0.8 GHz) and 2 GHz (depending on the type of phone), so they are all at roughly the same frequencies.
Here’s one now…