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Comment by ponow | Hacker News Reader

I'm still not convinced that Bluetooth earbuds are safe, and yes, I'm aware they don't produce ionizing radiation. No one here is concerned about having them in your ear canal for hours every day for years is essentially no worse than wearing a hat that keeps your head equally warm? What is the most convincing, clear evidence of a lack of long term health issues?

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Just to be clear, are you suggesting that wearing a hat causes some sort of damage to one's health? And further than that, a hat that kept one's head as warm as two one inch pieces of plastic?

Obviously I don't have data to back it up, but I can't imagine even gluing a pair of AirPods to one's face for one's entire life would make any significant impact on lifespan. Other than maybe all the glue.

EDIT: And if you're experiencing excessive heat from earbuds (which I would say would be essentially any amount of heat - they shouldn't really put out any noticeable heat), you probably have severely faulty earbuds and should get them replaced.

I doubt hat wearing is physically harmful, but it does warm your head, and that's one of the claims against Bluetooth headsets. I find that a non-danger. But it may not be the only one, e.g., voltage-gated calcium channels. I haven't looked into and wondered if anyone wanted to chime in with the latest.

Plenty of RF signals are going through your body right now -- what makes bluetooth here particularly dangerous in your opinion?

Concerns come after some form of adverse reaction. I personally only have them in for 2-3 hours per day, and don't think of the bluetooth much.

We won't have long term data for years, and that's just the reality. Even with long-term data, trying to hone in specific health problems to Airpods or similar devices will be incredibly difficult.

> What is the most convincing, clear evidence of a lack of long term health issues?

The same convincing, clear evidence we have of a lack of long term health issues from eating a gluten free diet. There will never be any that will satisfy you, as one can’t prove a negative.

If your concern isn't radiation, then is there a specific bluetooth issue or is it in-ear headphones in general? Certainly anything that can cause a build-up of earwax can result in other issues. So if you're wearing them for long stretches daily, there's a potential issue if these devices go deep enough (I don't know if they do).

The only issue with wearing them long-term is ear wax buildup. That's it.

Wearing earplugs is worse, since they form a tighter seal and breath less. People haven't died from wearing those, so earbuds are just fine.

Gluten-free or gluten-full?

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