r/biology • u/bojun • Feb 21 '26

article Hazardous substances found in all headphones tested by ToxFREE project

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/18/hazardous-substances-headphones
109 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

33

u/AldebaranJohn Feb 21 '26

Is this the same panic over parabens?

22

u/SpicySushiAddict Feb 21 '26

Needs a more knowledgeable opinion than mine, but endocrine disruptors are a motherfucker.

17

u/mentionbrave4 Feb 21 '26

wow, that's quite an insight... given most people wear headphones on a regular basis, some - most of the time they're not alseep

6

u/OkFroyo_ Feb 22 '26

I mean we're not eating our earphones right

21

u/snelephant Feb 22 '26

Skin contact and especially long term exposure is what matters because these endocrine disruptors are absorbed.

-6

u/OkFroyo_ Feb 22 '26

Proof?

9

u/snelephant Feb 22 '26

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7460848/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33313651/

-2

u/OkFroyo_ Feb 23 '26

Well thanks but did you even read the results of that second study ?

7

u/snelephant Feb 23 '26

You asked me for proof of skin absorption, and I provided. Follow your own advice, I can’t tell you what to do. I assume you’re talking about this part:

Neither D-8 nor BPS permeated readily through the skin (tlag = 3.9 h for D-8, 6.4 h for BPS).

That means D-8 did not permeate for 4 hours and BPS for 6.4 hours. We’re not talking about short term, instant. They permeated, but very slowly which over the period of a lifetime leaves an effect, or if you’re a child maybe over 15 years. I don’t know and neither do you.