Ferrite Beads Reduce Cell Phone Radiation Health Hazards From Wired Hands-free Headsets

RF Safe has a simple clip-on device under $4.00 to reduce cell phone radiation from wired headsets that help people safely comply with laws in most states in America which require a headset or other hands-free device while driving and talking on a phone.

RF Safe has posted on its website a list of states that require a hands-free device when using a cell phone while operating a vehicle, and points out something many people often overlook – cell phone radiation exposure.

Cell Phone Driving Laws: View state list

Millions of people with cell phones depend on a headset for driving safety. While others are concerned about health effects from wireless radiation have opted for using a wired headset instead of wireless headset to avoided “bluetooth” headsets – because that technology still transmits microwave radiation and it could be a health hazard, no different than the phone except much lower power.

Unfortunately, it turns out that a headset’s wire can pick up microwave radiation that is transmitted from a cell phone and channel that radiation directly into a users head. The radiation from the phone travels along the wire where it plugs into the phone, which connects inside the ear bud to an electronic speaker inside a users ear.

“Tests done in the UK prove that using a wired headset can increase exposure of cell phone radiation by up to 3X. The radiation is concentrated inside an area of the head where the brain is not protected by the skull. – the ear canal” says John Coates, Founder of RF Safe.

Coates says “It is important to note: The test performed proving three times the radiation coming from a wired headset was done measuring “Actual Radiation Emissions” and not simulated SAR testing”

The parameters for measuring the increase in wired headset radiation over holding the phone to the head were:

1) Electric Filed Strength

2) Power Density, unit of measure μW/cm2 (Micro Watts per cm2).

Not SAR testing.

Currently the FCC is reviewing their SAR testing procedure as many groups have come forward pressuring the government agency to recognize that potential hazards from cell phone radiation come from non-thermal exposure levels – far below any levels of absorption that heating of human tissue occurs. The status of the FCC review on SAR safety standards can be followed from the FCC website http://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-review-rf-exposure-policies

Environmental Working Group has made statements why it does not support the FCC’s current safety protocols (SAR) for the safety of wireless consumer products. http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/where_database

It’s RF Safe’s opinion that different test are needed, like the test already accepted by the IEEE that were used to come to the conclusion that 3 times the “actual radiation” is coming from wired headsets.

HOW IS RADIOFREQUENCY RADIATION MEASURED?
http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/rfsafety/rf-faqs.html#Q4

The researchers found the wires leading from the phone into the ear acted like an aerial antenna, conveying a more concentrated dose of radio waves than usual.

The UK Consumers’ Association says the findings on the wired phone headsets were a surprise. “If you’re worried about levels of radiation from your mobile phone, you shouldn’t rely on a wired phone headset,” said Graeme Jacobs, editor of Which?    April 2000 Independent UK

The argument against their finding in the 2000 article, is a difference in testing methods, and the argument is out dated because SAR standards are currently under review for being not adequate enough to protect the public’s health – where measuring “actual radiation exposure” instead of simulated radiation absorption is a better understanding of real life, real world exposure levels.

If connected to a cell phone listening to music with an ordinary wired headset or conducting everyday business with a wired headset – excessive microwave radiation is still traveling into a users head.  This statement stands true for both types of RF test methods performed on wired hands-free kits.

RF Safe has a very simple and inexpensive way to reduce microwave radiation from traveling up a headset’s wire into the brain. It’s a special material composition, a ferrite bead. A ferrite bead is a small clip you put on the wire of a headset.

“Use of a ferrite bead placed around the HFK lead at a point beyond where the fields from the phone might induce strong currents in the HFK significantly reduces the induced SAR when using a hands-free kit.”  – Professor L Barclay 2005 full report

The bead is designed to impede high frequency microwaves in the GHz range while allowing low frequency electromagnetic energy to pass through to operate the speaker to create sound in the Hz range.

According to RF Safe, low frequency energy is passed to the speaker to create the sound that reaches a users ears, but we block high frequency microwave radiation from the phone because it is potentially harmful radiation.

RF Safe is an online company founded over a decade ago in Aspen, Colorado. RF Safe is dedicated to evolving the wireless industries safety standards, by engaging in the business of design, testing, manufacture, and sale of safety technologies to mitigate harmful effects of cell phone radiation.

Coates started the company after the death of his new born child was attributed to a birth defect possibly caused from microwave radiation exposure from industrial communications radios when his wife was pregnant.

“He has spent a big part of his life teaching others how to reduce RF exposure in their lives, and he personally makes sure people have access to the best products on the market for protection. Even if that means something must be invented”, said Cory Schop – Senior Director of Marketing at RF SAFE.

Ferrites are used in many consumer electronics to prevent interference from disruptive electromagnetic radiation, but they have limitations. Just as ferrites allow low frequency energy to pass, ferrites have a frequency band they are designed to block. Depending on the ferrites core composition, a ferrite’s performance diminishes at frequencies higher than for what it is rated.

It’s for this reason RF Safe suggest for the most prudent avoidance of RF radiation to use an air-tube headset . That way, there are no wires reaching a users head, and the ferrite is added protection where the wire comes in contact with a users torso.

“RF Safe’s ferrite bead is especially important for women that are pregnant or trying to have children when the headset wire is unshielded and comes in contact with the body.” says Coates.

RF Safe is offering a clip-on ferrite bead for headset wires for only 3.99 each. These are the same ferrite beads selling on other popular websites for 14.95 and up. RF Safe has made it possible for a family of 5 cell phone users to shield their headsets for under $20 total. No limit, consumers can order as many as they like online here: .

Ferrite beads have become very popular for cell phone headset radiation protection with the endorsement of trusted medical professionals, like in this recent video with Dr Sanjay Gupta on Anderson Cooper 360 discussing, Bluetooth headset radiation, air tube headsets and ferrite beads.