Cell Phones And Tinnitus: Is There A Connection?

Tinnitus always felt to me like a disease that only the elderly get, I remember when I was at school my elderly (he was probably about my age!) woodwork teacher was off work for weeks with it.  You can contract tinnitus at any age, and now it seems if you are a regular cell phone user the chances of getting this condition are much higher.

What is Tinnitus?

It’s an auditory condition, sufferer’s are typically bombarded with an orchestra of ringing, buzzing, wailing or sounds that mimic far-off human voices.  It can be only a faint, background disturbance, or it can so overwhelm the hearing that the person will almost be deaf to normal noise – sounds like something out of the movie “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, I know.  These sounds exist only in the ears of the person who has tinnitus, they are not external noises.  Tinnitus can be caused by many different things, such as heavy aspirin use, a blow to the head, antibiotics, or ear infections. That much is known, but can a cell phone cause tinnitus?

When a cell phone is being used, it is generally held right up against the ear, exposing the auditory nerve to electromagnetic radiation.  It does not even take prolonged cell phone use to induce tinnitus, either, a short ten minute call every day can be enough to trigger this uncomfortable condition.

The Science

A recent study shows that cell phone use can raise the possibility of developing tinnitus by 71%, yes I said 71%!

Although researchers are still uncertain why cell phone use causes tinnitus, they believe that the problem lies with the cochlea.  The cochlea is located in our inner ear and is a fluid-filled organ that transmits sound to the brain.  There are tiny hairs lining the cochlea which help to change the sound vibrations entering the cochlea into electrical signals that will be sent on to the brain.  These hairs are very delicate, and it is damage to these hairs that can contribute to tinnitus. It is quite likely that the waves of electromagnetic radiation when the cell phone is pressed to the ear will cause damage to those delicate hairs, which can then cause tinnitus.

But tinnitus is not the only problem. Click here to see thousands of studies on cell phone hearing loss.

Professor Belpomme’s research has found that Tinnitus is a primary symptom in EHS sufferers.

I know its asking a lot to give up your cell phone, but there things you can do to protect yourself. Practicing a few simple procedures while using your cell phone can help to protect you and your family from tinnitus.  While certainly not life-threatening, tinnitus can be an annoying, persistent condition that can cause irritability, insomnia, and panic attacks, and severely reduce the quality of life of people suffering from it.





  • BDS said,

    More scientific references can be found here: http://www.beperkdestraling.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=157#tinnitus (some information in Dutch, but most in English)

  • michael said,

    wow , such an old post but no comments?….

    but how can we fix this ringing in our ears which has been caused by electromagnetic radiation? im trying to search here but this is the only result i’ve found so far that even talks about this problem being cause by the radiation…..

    although i did find this page which seems to have a lot of useful help from the people who have tried things that ended up working


    and a lot of pages say drinking apple cider vinegar will help , though i also saw a page that said for some it didn’t make a difference , but i’ll try doing what this person did maybe and see…..




    hope i wont be too repulsed by drinking that much……

  • Lili said,

    8 oz of apple cider vinegar (ACV)? More like couple teaspoon or tablespoons of ACV in 8 oz of water rbo.

  • michael said,

    nope , that person definitely meant 8 oz of acv , wow that post of mine is like a year old , i’ve gone through a couple bottles of acv since then , but i always just took a couple swigs , never drank that full amount , and my ringing is still only getting worse…..

    but thanks for commenting so i got the notification to come back and see this , maybe i should try drinking that much sometime soon and see if it works…..

  • Angela said,

    What I recommend based on experience:
    1. Eliminate the radiation from your space as much as possible. The only way to be sure is to buy a device that measures the amount of emf you’re exposed to.
    2. Get rid of wifi in your home. Use wired internet connection. Make sure your routers wifi switches (soft and hard) are off when you do this. Flight mode your laptop at all times and your cell phone as much as possible, esp when its near you.
    3. Get an emf shielding cap and wear it over your head when you are in a radiation zone (high or low). And yes they have those (they’re lined with silver).
    4. Rest your ears daily (Spend time in an extremely quiet place for at least an hour every day, in silence, just listening to nothing. Best scenario is your bedroom when you’re sleeping. Remember the ears aren’t blocked to the sounds around us even when we sleep. (A friend recommended titanium earplugs, which I am yet to buy and try).
    5. Do hearing exercises to strengthen your hearing (Look these up online).
    The buzzing should diminish considerably or stop all together within a couple of days or a few weeks. If you stop to do these, the buzz will return within some days or weeks, because your ears are simply sensitive, and that’s ok.
    The best solution is to eliminate the source where your body recovers (in your bedroom), and the only way to be sure is to measure the exposure with an emf detector.

  • Alexandria Heather said,

    I have intense tinnitus, had it for years. I’ve never had a cell phone as part of my everyday life. It’s not from the cellphone. The nature of it is so obviously transmissions. The patterns and beeps are digital in nature. So, it’s really happening and it doesn’t have to be from cell phones.

Add A Comment

Leave a Reply
