[backdrifter]

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[EdipisReks]

the sun puts out billions of times more EM radiation than your headphones. life on this planet evolved in this heavily EM radiation loaded environment and isn't terribly susceptible to EM damage. there is nothing to worry about.

 

[lini]

backdrifter: Well, if you're not worried about using electric shavers or hairdryers, you surely don't need to worry about using headphones.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[backdrifter]

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[cosmopragma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by backdrifter Anyone out there worried?

No.
I'm tired of all this rubbish.
"Electromagnetic shielding" is a marketing gimmick aimed at the german market.
The common German is extremely concerned about "dangerous" electromagnetic fields.Without a clue, and without any proof.
This is just a local madness, grown over many years during mjy lifetime.
Due to this irrational public concerns our politicians have funded hundreds of scientific studies.
No significant results.
That doesn't stop the rumours, conspiracy theories included, this is pure voodoo.
Nevertheless all those worried clueless combined add up to an own market section, and therefor there are products covering those irrational fears.

 

[Onix]

Maybe this is not a good time to mention that my left ear just fell off and the other one is turning black... Just kidding. The idea of EM radiation reminds me that, when I was a kid, there were rumours about colour TV, a new thing then, produced harmful radiations that could sterelize (sp?) children, leaving them as eunuchs. Obviously, it didn't happen, but that comes to show that some people just tend to be suspicious of new technologies and sometimes that suspicion generates fear.

Another example is computer viruses. When I worked for a newspaper (in 1989) we had a guy who did not wanted to touch his computer anymore, because he just heard that PC's somehow got infected with viruses

and he didn't want to catch it. Go figure.

 

[backdrifter]

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[Born2bwire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by backdrifter It seems like the research that has been done on EMF has related to cell towers and power lines. It seems, however, that the exposure from powerlines is not that great. Here's a quote about cell towers: "His company, he said, did a test in Roseland in which a radio frequency engineer measured the electronic fields near his tower. A measuring device was calibrated from 1 to 100, with 100 the maximum, he said. At the base of the tower, the readings were only two and three. Hayes said the engineer got a higher reading from a fluorescent light than from the tower" Here's the story it came from: http://www.southbendtribune.com/stor..._neighbors.sto The difference with headphones, of course, is that they are right on your head! Did anyone see this story about mobile phones? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5316074/ Mobile phones are a better comparison because they are held close to the user and can be operated for long sessions. Again, as cosmopragma said, there doesn't seem to be convincing research. Some people are afraid EMF are biologically active, but who really knows?

The difference between headphones and cellphones is that cellphones emit high frequency radiation on the order of gigahertz (I can't recall off hand what the designated bandwidth for cellphones are but you get the picture). If you don't accept the comparison of naturally occuring background radiation in comparison to headphone radiation because of the fact that any radiation emitted by headphones would be only as high as the Khz range, then you can't accept the same comparison with cellphones. Headphones are an old technology and it's easy to find people who have worked with headphones on a daily basis at work throughout the past 50 years if not longer. The fact that we're ignorant of any study or correlation with headphone usage and adverse side effects probably has little to do with a lack of sample size.

 

[backdrifter]

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[EdipisReks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by backdrifter Thanks for your replies. You describe other sources of radiation that are not analogous. The EMF from the sun is UVA and UVB rays

stars put out a lot more than just UVA and UVB.

 

[EdipisReks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by backdrifter Cell phones aren't the same as headphones, I agree. Point taken. I'm just using it as another example of a device that emits radiation, the effects of which are debated. Other examples might be microwave ovens and police radar guns (and we know those have caused cancer). Again, not the same thing, I know. There might be a large sample of audio pros and other longtime headphone users who could be studied, but has anyone studied them? I've never heard of such a thing. Does anyone have any anecdotal comments about longtime headphone users? Is Ultrasone just using a manipulative marketing device? On the other side of this, I see that there are people advertising "magnet therapy" for various health problems. Maybe using headphones heals us and improves circulation? Probably not...

magnets are worthless as therapy.

 

[Nak Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by backdrifter Is Ultrasone just using a manipulative marketing device?

I remember asking this question before. Definitely not an expert here - but reading ultrasone's web article made me go hmmm ... they compare phones to monitor magnetic force at 30cm distance, let me requote:

Quote:

[size=xx-small]Remember - just for comparison - using a current headphone is like placing 5-10 computer monitors (not the TFT-models, the old ones) directly around your head. Using PROline by ULTRASONE reduces this by up to 98 %. In numbers: a monitor has 200 nT in 12 inches distance. Current headphones go up to 2.000 nT, PROline has a maximum of 50 nT, which is less than the area around the user has. [/size]

Too bad if Ultrasone used that as marketing bull, imo it doesn't have to go that low since it has very nice sounding products - especially for closed phones.

 

[Born2bwire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by backdrifter Cell phones aren't the same as headphones, I agree. Point taken. I'm just using it as another example of a device that emits radiation, the effects of which are debated. Other examples might be microwave ovens and police radar guns (and we know those have caused cancer). Again, not the same thing, I know. On the other side of this, I see that there are people advertising "magnet therapy" for various health problems. Maybe using headphones heals us and improves circulation? Probably not...

Microwave ovens are resonant chambers designed to vibrate water molecules to the point of boiling. That fact alone makes exposure to the EM waves from a microwave oven less than desirable, fortunately, they're easily shielded. The fact that you can sit in front of the microwave and actually watch your popcorn (mmmmmmm...) pop is a testament to this fact, the only question is how much shielding do you want because we can do better but you wouldn't be able to watch. On that note, read up on microwaves, how they were invented and the theory behind them are very interesting and is a neat lesson in waveguides. The fact remains though, that I have never heard of concern over ultra low frequency EM fields, which is what you get from headphones.

Just doing a quick search, http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start...tor.doc&e=7249 They have a list of measurements of the magnetic field strength 30 cm away from the monitor, one of the higher measurements is 12 mG, or 1.2 microTesla. This is on 3 orders of magnitude higher than what Ultrasone states and is 1200 nT. At this point, I wouldn't give any more thought than when I sit in front of my computer and work.