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Radiation Risk?

Anonymous
Not applicable
What are everyones thoughts on the risk of radiation when we have this thing strap to our head for long periods of time day in and day out? I'm been watching movies and to be safe I turn off all cellular and wifi signals.
9 REPLIES 9

dgsharp
Explorer
The CRT TV or computer monitor your mom told you not to sit too close to was a source of X-rays and maybe other ionizing radiation, which can be an issue. Cell phones, wifi, and LCDs emit non-ionizing radiation. Other than acting as a heat source that may be uncomfortable it is my understanding that the scientific concensus right now is that there's no significant evidence of a radiation issue.

HomerS66
Expert Protege
"trinavy" wrote:
What are everyones thoughts on the risk of radiation when we have this thing strap to our head for long periods of time day in and day out? I'm been watching movies and to be safe I turn off all cellular and wifi signals.


Yep me too i only use wifi/cellular if i have to, that's why i would appreciate if Oculus would store the app thumbnails on the phone again like they did when the Gear VR was released.

Ashles
Protege
Why is this different to using a phone normally directly against your head? Or keeping it in your pocket turned on for long periods? Or sitting near the wifi router at home?

People already have phones stuck to their ears for far longer each day than anyone would have a VR headset on their face (and which is suspended a couple of inches further away) and we havent seen any particular ill effects.

If you are worried about cancer then smoking, red meat, alcohol, obesity, lack of exercise etc are far higher risks. I find it strange people get worried about the non-ionising radiation of wifi and mobile radio, yet seem unconcerned about many other factors which have much clearer links as possible carcinogens.
"Into every life a little fantasy must fall..."

Alric
Explorer
I lost my father to a brain tumour 10 years ago (he used mobiles a lot since they came out in the 80's) it was also on the same side he held his phone. Although my dad never blamed mobile phones whilst he was dying he did ask the specialist brain surgeon from London who operated on him what he thought and I vividly remember him saying he hoped it wasn't mobile phones but had an awful feeling they added cases that may not have been. He also said if it does turn out to be linked to mobile phones he would never be out of a job, in the way some doctors typically make a poorly constructed & off timed joke.

I must admit, it has changed my outlook on things though & always use a landline instead of my mobile if possible & always use gearvr with wifi/cellular switched off.

On a side note the surgeon did say he was certain light dimmer switches can cause brain tumours which a lot of people have in reach of where they sleep. I moved mine well away when I redecorated my house. I am aware you can't live your life scared of what if but also I'm not going to increase my risk after watching what my dad went through just because there isn't enough evidence or testing yet to say certain things add risk or not. For example if now they really did find out that mobile phones caused a vast amount of different cancers in people, the majority would still find it hard to give them up because they are so booming great (me included). It's almost like when they came out & linked cancer to smoking. Just like in smoking with mobile phones the money is so huge that they will do anything to not let a potential health risk get in the way, but that's just my opinion.

To sum up I can enjoy gearvr with wifi/cellular off just as much as with it on, make up your own mind.

Ashles
Protege
Obviously everyone should use things as they do or don't feel comfortable - I just disagree in that there isn't enough evidence either way. If there was a correlation (or a significant correlation) I believe we would have strong indications by now. There is enormous money in tobacco, alcohol, meat etc and we still know the health risks connected with them.
"Into every life a little fantasy must fall..."

Anonymous
Not applicable
The energy of the radiation massively decreases with the distance to the phone.
Specially in the first centimeters. The field energy drops like a stone in the first few centimeters and then continues to drop but far, far slower.

Ok, after checking how the field strengh drops of cell phones, I would say, it drops by factor 250 in like 5cm.

The phone is like 5cm away from your head when you use it in a GearVR.
So, 4 hours of GearVR usage should be as much radiation as 1 minute regular phone call, with the phone touching your head.

That still may be dangerous if you do it for 50 years, but... just to set it to a relation to the "typical" usage of cell phones.

SpiderCenturion
Honored Guest
I remember reading an article a year or so ago about cell phones and cancer risk in general. The main point was that it seemed like the scientific community hadn't had enough time to see if cancer risk goes up. With pretty much everything in the world causing cancer, I'd imagine it probably would raise the risk...who knows....

LejoLaid2007
Honored Guest
DO I NEED BLUETOOTH ENABLED TO USE THE OCULAS QUEST

kojack
MVP
MVP


DO I NEED BLUETOOTH ENABLED TO USE THE OCULAS QUEST


No need to shout.
The mobile app needs bluetooth to communicate with the Quest. You don't need bluetooth for the Quest to run otherwise. You need wifi to download games.
The Touch controllers use a non standard BLE.

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