Your Wireless Headsets Radiation

Your headset's radiation

NOTE: AegisGuard™ LS Radiation Shields are the correct product to use with wireless headsets.
Click here if your headset has a wire or air tube.

Believing they are a safe alternative to placing a cellular phone against their head, many people use hands-free headsets and attach the phone to their belt or purse. Studies and tests conducted in the United Kingdom have proven headsets are not safe, resulting in the British government reversing their recommendation advising consumers to use hands-free headsets as safety devices:

The headset wire connecting a cell phone and earpiece serves as an antenna that absorbs radiation in the air that surrounds every person. When a headset is used with a cell phone, the radiation generated by the phone and the airborne radiation that surrounds everybody is transferred through the wire or plastic tube connecting the phone and earpiece and penetrates the head directly through the ear canal. Cellular phone headset earpiece emissions into the ear canal can be three times higher than the emissions when placing a phone directly against the ear.
NOTE: Wireless headsets represent an even greater risk because the wire is replaced with a transmitter and receiver operating with low power at pulsing frequency levels between 900 MHz. to 2.4 GHz. Microwave ovens operate at 2.4 GHz., and the maximum frequencies for wireless products compliant with Bluetooth and 3G specifications are 2.497 GHz. and 2.17 GHz., respectively.
When a phone is attached to a belt and in use, radiation penetrates the body by the phone at an accelerated rate and is absorbed faster than the head because tissues and organs, such as the liver and kidneys, provide better conductivity than the skull and have no bone protection.
Phones operate at higher power levels and emit more radiation when they are held lower than the head.

During January, 1998 Aegis was the first company to advise its customers and dealers about the risks associated with using a headset, and the first publicized tests investigating hands-free headset safety were commissioned and reported by the Sunday Mirror in July, 1999. Additional tests using procedures other than Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) standards that are endorsed by regulatory agencies worldwide to determine cellular phone safety were commissioned by the British consumer organization Which? during April 2000. They reported a 300+% increase of cellular phone radiation penetrating the head while using a headset.

In response to the Which? findings, the British government commissioned SAR tests by an independent laboratory in July, 2000. They reported a 90% reduction of cellular phone radiation penetrating the head while using a headset. Newspapers worldwide published articles describing the 390% variance between the studies that fueled the controversy over SAR standards and test procedures being flawed.

During October, 2000 and in response to the British government report, Which? commissioned another series of tests by the same laboratory they had used in April. They tested 5 mobile phone models and 2 different headsets per phone, and the results were the same as the first tests. Which? then commissioned the laboratory that performed the British government tests to conduct SAR tests using the same phones and headsets. These SAR results were also the same as the first SAR test, however Which? discovered and reported why the test results were different. As a result and during December, 2000, the British government reversed their earlier health approval recommendation advising consumers to use hands-free headsets as safety devices.

The health effects when using a headset with a cellular phone are largely unknown and will require considerable time to be resolved. During February, 2001 the first report describing a headset related health condition called 'Acoustic Shock' began circulating in Europe.