Filed under: Accessories, Audio, iPhone
The iPhone: most dangerous cell phone ever? (No.)
Is the iPhone the most dangerous cell phone ever?
Dr. Joseph Mercola thinks so. He's concerned about that great modern boogeyman, cell phone radiation. But lucky for you, he's got a solution he can sell you: the Blue Tube headset.
The Blue Tube headset looks to be a 2.5 mm plug hooked into a tiny speakerbox at the other end. That speaker box then emits sound up a long, hollow tube (similar to how a stethoscope works) and into an earpiece similar to those found on higher-end headphones from Shure and Etymotic.
What exactly makes an iPhone more "dangerous" than other cell phones? Well, Dr. Mercola helpfully points out that the iPhone emits radiation way more often than other cell phones, mostly because of what he calls "data waves."
Hookay. Let's be real for a second: cellular phones do emit low-level electromagnetic (EM) radiation. I used to work as a radiological health physics technician, so I know a fair bit about radiation (which is why I used to be in that field. Not anymore). Without getting too science-lecturey about it, let's just say there's two basic types of radiation:
1. The scary kind that can turn you into a sewer mutant and/or kill you. This is called ionizing radiation. It comes from nuclear weapons, nuclear reactors, nuclear waste, nuclear medicine (I'm sensing a pattern here), x-rays, and Cleveland.
2. The not-so scary kind that doesn't do much of anything to you at all. This is called non-ionizing radiation. Sources include power lines, your computer's display, cell phones, and the North Korean government's secret mind control rays.
It seems like every other week we get to hear about how the microwave radiation from cell phones is going to cook all of our brains like popcorn, and yet over decades of cell phone use by hundreds of millions of people, it hasn't happened yet. In fact, the U.S. National Cancer Institute has said, "Studies have not shown any consistent link between cellular telephone use and cancer." If anybody should know, I think it'd be those guys.
At any rate, it's kind of unnecessary to shell out close to $30 for the Blue Tube anyway, since the iPhone comes with a perfectly decent set of headphones already; and unlike the Blue Tube, they have a built-in microphone as well. If you're really as scared of iPhone-induced brain cancer as Dr. Mercola seems to think you should be, just use the free pack-in headphones instead.
Thanks to reader Chuck Cooper for sending this in!
Dr. Joseph Mercola thinks so. He's concerned about that great modern boogeyman, cell phone radiation. But lucky for you, he's got a solution he can sell you: the Blue Tube headset.
The Blue Tube headset looks to be a 2.5 mm plug hooked into a tiny speakerbox at the other end. That speaker box then emits sound up a long, hollow tube (similar to how a stethoscope works) and into an earpiece similar to those found on higher-end headphones from Shure and Etymotic.
What exactly makes an iPhone more "dangerous" than other cell phones? Well, Dr. Mercola helpfully points out that the iPhone emits radiation way more often than other cell phones, mostly because of what he calls "data waves."
Hookay. Let's be real for a second: cellular phones do emit low-level electromagnetic (EM) radiation. I used to work as a radiological health physics technician, so I know a fair bit about radiation (which is why I used to be in that field. Not anymore). Without getting too science-lecturey about it, let's just say there's two basic types of radiation:
1. The scary kind that can turn you into a sewer mutant and/or kill you. This is called ionizing radiation. It comes from nuclear weapons, nuclear reactors, nuclear waste, nuclear medicine (I'm sensing a pattern here), x-rays, and Cleveland.
2. The not-so scary kind that doesn't do much of anything to you at all. This is called non-ionizing radiation. Sources include power lines, your computer's display, cell phones, and the North Korean government's secret mind control rays.
It seems like every other week we get to hear about how the microwave radiation from cell phones is going to cook all of our brains like popcorn, and yet over decades of cell phone use by hundreds of millions of people, it hasn't happened yet. In fact, the U.S. National Cancer Institute has said, "Studies have not shown any consistent link between cellular telephone use and cancer." If anybody should know, I think it'd be those guys.
At any rate, it's kind of unnecessary to shell out close to $30 for the Blue Tube anyway, since the iPhone comes with a perfectly decent set of headphones already; and unlike the Blue Tube, they have a built-in microphone as well. If you're really as scared of iPhone-induced brain cancer as Dr. Mercola seems to think you should be, just use the free pack-in headphones instead.
Thanks to reader Chuck Cooper for sending this in!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Think Adrian said 7:13AM on 6-14-2009
Very good post, I thought about this myself, and now I have sufficient information. I shall not go to Cleveland.
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(01) said 7:14AM on 6-15-2009
(laughs) awesome
turkay said 7:14AM on 6-14-2009
I never thought it has advantages not having an iPhone, happy me :)
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Jagger said 9:20PM on 6-14-2009
Go back to your Norse mythology, TROLL!
Eddy120876 said 7:22AM on 6-14-2009
Sad Sad excuse of a doctor(just like that Dr Marshall that was in favor of that "Very powerfull loose weight pill" that actually kill people.) This is another a temp to scare people into buying a headset. Like you guys at tuaw said whats the point of a headset with no mic?..
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Juaquin said 1:24AM on 6-15-2009
Yeah, let me know when this guy gets a degree in electrical engineering and realizes the power lines in his house are giving off more EM radiation than his cell phone. I'm sure he'll find a way to make a buck off the people's ignorance of science.
mabhatter said 1:27AM on 6-15-2009
the point is that iPhones have the tri-band cell radio, plus Bluetooth and WiFi radios working all the time. Somebody might remember that 2.4 Ghz is only a few waves from a microwave oven!
The "men in black" used to use similar tech years ago when headphones were giant to hide the receiver under their jackets. If they were clever they could have done a mic too... it's not black-ops science or anything. If you're going to be paranoid, you might as well go all out and keep those nasty electro-magnetic waves out of your head too!
As a side note, they don't sell foil that's actually made of tin....you gotta wonder why.
Juaquin said 10:04PM on 6-15-2009
Teh microwaves? No way! Near my body?
Seriously, the amount of radiation being emitted by your phone (even if it was all moved to the microwave band) would still take decades to defrost a chicken breast (assuming the warmth of the air didn't do it first). This is all extreme paranoia and ignorance. Educate yourselves so people can't take advantage of you like this.
DP533 said 11:52AM on 6-17-2009
I love the 'borrowed' logo (Mediacom Cable's old logo) and and pics, again Mediacom's old website....so either they paid the same company MC did or they're a fly-by-night....I'm guessing the latter... Even the name is goofy - oh, well.... whatcha gonna do when they come for you....
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Thomas said 8:01AM on 6-14-2009
there are quacks everywhere.
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Simon Arch said 11:35AM on 6-14-2009
And, unfortunately there are easily-duped, uneducated folks out there who can be scared into buying this garbage. And because he calls himself a doctor, he gains instant credibility.
MJZimmer88 said 7:10PM on 6-14-2009
there aren't many ducks in NYC... but there are certainly quacks... ironic huh?
jan said 8:21AM on 6-14-2009
Socrates in his days went around pointing out to people that their expertise in one field, contrary to their opinion, did not equal expertise in everything else.
Mr. Cooper is ignoring a by now large body of research that reveals the damaging effects of mobile telephony radiations.
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VanillaSpice said 11:00PM on 6-14-2009
Absolute FUD.
Meta-studies, and reviews of individual experiments looking for such a link, conducted many times, in different countries, have continually shown that there is ABSOLUTELY NO statistical link between non-ionising radiation sources and cancer. There is no "large body of research" that says the contrary, at all. (Talking about *real* studies here - i.e. peer reviewed and published by a reputable source.)
Both the WHO and the EC's Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks have stated they cannot find evidence to support a mobile phone - cancer link, and many hope the WHO will finally put this issue to rest in October when it releases its mobile phone recommendations. The SCENIHR has already gone as far as saying, "Normal exposure to mobile phone radiation cannot cause headaches or dizziness, nor can it cause brain cancers, neurological effects or reproductive effects."
jan said 6:09AM on 6-15-2009
Just one link, if you are interested to investigate the matter. Note this passage: 'The power and frequency of electromagnetic waves, emitted, say, by cell phones, are similar to the brightness and colors of the optical radiation that human eyes discern. The eye sees the world colored, not gray. There is a great deal of scientific evidence for the "colored" perception of the electromagnetic waves by the human body. This means non-thermal effects are real.' http://www.planningsanity.co.uk/forums/masts/pdf/russian.pdf
Russian biophysics research is and has been for a long time more advanced than biophysics research in the EU and US. Scroll down to see the cell phone use recommendations by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
My experience: even brief use of a cell phone near my head gives me a localized ache.
atothej said 8:21AM on 6-14-2009
is it true that the iPhone picks up others' iPhones' signals to transfer them to the cell tower, or in Dr. what's-his-face's words: "even when it's off it serves as a base station"... wtf?
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Branden said 8:22AM on 6-14-2009
I love how he's telling people that iPhones act as "mini cell towers" that relay other people's data through your phone and back to the tower?
First off: what an idiot and that makes no sense whatsoever.
Second off: if that were true, could you imagine the controversy and the potential security issues?
::sigh:: I wonder how many sheep he finds to follow him...
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atothej said 8:24AM on 6-14-2009
ah, that seems to answer my question. I knew it sounded idiotic, but I did not want to believe that dude was outright lying...
PabloZ said 8:32AM on 6-14-2009
Interesting abuse of cancer mortality statistics too. Instead of saying, "We've made great strides in treating childhood leukemia, where the mortality rate has dropped below that of brain cancer," Dr. Mercola says, "Brain cancer recently surpassed leukemia as the number one cancer killer in children." The mortality rates for both are down (for some recent, high quality US data, see page 11 of http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/CAFF2007PWSecured.pdf and http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/Leukemia/7608), but the rates for leukimia deaths are declining much more quickly than the rates of brain cancer deaths.
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kakapo said 8:38AM on 6-14-2009
pseudo-Doctor Mercola has been prostituting himself on the fear mongering game for a long time - even prior to the internet being the snake oil sales platform of choice. I remember seeing him in some of the New Age magazines pushing some "save your self from everything else" ads...
But he has always been a fear purveyor of the radiation from cell phones (mobile phones to us Aussies)...
Everyone knows that S.P.A.M. stands for Slim Posing Aa a MeaningfulMessage (poetic license hanging on wall) ;)
Maybe - just maybe - ole SPAMbag would gain a tid bit of credibility if he didn't try to sell some crapola with every warning!
Obviously, he wanted Apple to give him an iPhone or he didn't want to have to wait in line for one, so he a bit pissy about the harmful radiation emitted from them.
I have been telling the fruit looping aluminium hat wearing ding bats for yonks that the radio waves being received and transmitted by mobile phones is a non sequitur of relevance regarding the technology.
It is like fishing for elephants using only a one barbed hook.
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