Is The iPhone 7 Bad For Your Health?

Missing your headphone jack? The new iPhone 7 may prove more than just inconvenient, but even bad for your health…

Apple recently released their new iPhone 7 and created a storm of controversy as users reacted to the removal of the headphone jack. While Apple says that the removal of this feature will allow a lighter, more streamlined product, many users are upset at the loss – and some health experts warn that it could even be bad for your health.

How?

By removing the wired headset, the phone will essentially place a wireless receiver directly into your ear.

There has been debate for years over whether the radio frequencies transmitted by cell phones are harmful to your health, but some scientists say yes.

In fact,

In 2011, the World Health Organization classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans, “based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use.”

Apple itself even admits in their product literature that you should keep your phone away from your ear:

“To reduce exposure to RF energy, use a hands-free option, such as the built in speakerphone, the supplied headphones or other similar accessories. Carry iPhone at least 5mm away from your body to ensure exposure levels remain at, or below, the as-tested levels.”

With wireless headphones entering the picture as a main feature, what impact might this have on your radio frequency exposure – and your health?

Here is more on this issue, from a recent CNN report:

The RF of any wireless device — a cell phone, Bluetooth headphones or a wireless router — emits non-ionizing radiation. These devices aren’t as dangerous as those that emit ionizing radiation, such as X-ray machines, but some experts remain wary of them nonetheless.

“The biggest problem we have is that we know most environmental factors take several decades of exposure before we really see the consequences,” Dr. Keith Black, chairman of the neurosurgery department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told CNN when the news broke.

“What microwave radiation does, in most simplistic terms, is similar to what happens to food in microwaves, essentially cooking the brain,” Black said. “So in addition to leading to a development of cancer and tumors, there could be a whole host of other effects like cognitive memory function, since the memory temporal lobes are where we hold our cell phones.”

In May, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a partial report, based on experiments in rats and mice, on potential health hazards from cell phone radiofrequency radiation.

CNN typically does not report on animal studies, because the results often don’t translate to humans. However, these rare, aggressive, malignant tumors that occurred in male rats are the very same tumors found in epidemiologic studies in humans using cell phones for the longest period of time.

HHS says the complete results from all of the rat and mice studies will be available for peer review and public comment by the end of 2017.

For now, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says, “If there is a risk of being exposed to radiofrequency energy (RF) from cell phones — and at this point we do not know that there is — it is probably very small.” Still, if you are at all concerned about your exposure, the FDA recommends reducing the amount of time spent using your cell phone, as well as using the speakerphone function or a wired headset to maximize the distance between your head and your cell phone.

The good news is, Apple says that they will be including wired Lightning headphones with all new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus purchases, as well as an adapter for those consumers who wish to continue using their existing 3.5mm wired headphones.

Learn more at CNN.com…