In addition to auditory nerve damage, microwave radiation from wireless phones is a confirmed cause of acoustic neuroma (AN). This is a type of tumor growing on the vestibulocochlear nerve that play important roles in both hearing and balance. Cell phones, cordless phones, wireless headsets and Bluetooth devices are all mentioned in risk statistics for this type of tumor, a common cause of deafness. Using microwave devices on the ear for several years doubles the risk for AN. [10]  A common treatment for AN tumors is surgery which causes varying degrees of permanent hearing loss. The images below show an MRI of a patient’s brain with a large acoustic neuroma (left) and a drawing of a large acoustic neuroma pressing on surrounding brain structures (right).

   Since the wireless revolution began, adequate research on audiological issues related to wireless technology has never been undertaken in the United States. As confirmed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), most of the scant wireless bio-research conducted in the United States has been sponsored by the Wireless Radiation Industry (for damage control purposes). [11] This situation is akin to tobacco companies researching the health effects of cigarettes.

  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has neither manpower nor political will to scientifically and properly review the true effects of radiation-emitting consumer products. All Wi-radiation exposure standards extolled by the FDA are based on antiquated guesstimates and mathematical calculations that suit the military-industrial complex.  And no human study has ever been undertaken by federal regulators to prove that wireless devices held against the head are safe for the human auditory system.

♦  In 2005, a Spanish medical study conducted at the University of Valencia reported hearing loss among 323 healthy volunteers who were followed during three years of cell phone use. [13]

♦ In 2007, medical research presented by the American Academy of Otolaryngology found that microwave phone radiation incrementally damages the inner ear, causing high frequency hearing loss. This study, conducted by a research institute in New Delhi, India, followed 100 people who used mobile phones for over one year and who incrementally suffered hearing loss as a result. Researchers found that those who kept a microwave-emitting device on their ear for an hour a day or more, sustained the most inner ear damage. [16]

♦  In 2010, doctors in India reported a 50% hearing loss among some cell phone users in a case-control study which compared the hearing of 112 cell phone users compared to 50 controls who had never used a mobile phone. Employing a battery of audiological investigations, the study concluded: "High frequency loss and absent distortion product otoacoustic emissions [sounds generated by the inner ear] were observed with an increase in the duration of mobile phone use, excessive use of mobile phones, and age more than 30. Additionally, users with some complaints during mobile phone use demonstrated...abnormalities in auditory brainstem response. Long-term and intensive mobile phone use may cause inner ear damage." [17]

♦  In 2011, a follow-up case-control study on a different group of subjects by the same Indian research group again found numerous audiological problems in cell phone users compared to the control group. The study reported: "More than three years of mobile phone usage emerged as a risk fact. The damage done was bilateral, with the quantum of damage being the same for both GSM and CDMA [modulation technologies]." The report concluded: "Long-term and intensive GSM and CDMA mobile phone use may cause damage to the cochlea as well as the auditory cortex." [18]

♦  In 2013, researchers with the Department of Otolaryngology at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia published a study which concluded that test subjects using a 3G mobile phone for sixty minutes [a fraction of the time American youth spend talking with more powerful 4/5G wireless phones/ear buds] suffered an immediate effect on their hearing threshold levels and that they suffered other negative otological symptoms. [19]

♦  In 2013, an epidemiological study published in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine tabulated data from a medical questionnaire given to 350 Turkish cell phone users. Many users reported hearing loss and tinnitus along with headaches and vertigo/dizziness related to their wireless exposure. [20]

    

 

 

   Microwave  damage to the human cochlea, an inner ear structure, as discussed in the radiation studies cited above, is bad news. The majority of people with hearing loss have suffered some degree of damage to the cochlea.  Below are pictures under magnification from the House Ear Institute showing the miraculous and fragile "hair" cells lining the cochlea. These fantastic little microprocessors have everything to do with either hearing well or going deaf. They are organized into three rows of outer hair cells, and one row of inner hair cells. Inner hair cells send auditory information to the brain, while outer hair cells act to stabilize or intensify the vibrations transmitted throughout the cochlea.

  And there is more: "Research by NASA in the 1970s showed that this effect occurs as a result of thermal expansion of parts of the human ear around the cochlea, even at low power density. Later, signal modulation was found to produce sounds or words that appeared to originate intracranially. It was studied for its possible use in communications, but has not been developed due to the possible hazardous biological effects of microwave radiation." [25]

  There have been numerous media reports about young Americans suffering tinnitus and other symptoms of  hearing damage from media players, such as iPods and MP3 players that have Wi-Fi capabilities. Unless the wireless component is disabled, these addictive devices emit continuous microwave energy spikes into the ear canal. This radiation also freely travels through unshielded ear wires and Bluetooth headphones commonly used for hands-free application. Could the combination of continuous, too-loud volume along with pulsed microwave signals be a root cause of hearing damage epidemic among America's young? The medical studies cited above indicate that successive armies of young digital cyborgs, always plugged in for their daily "dose" of wireless carcinogen, are destined to join in waves (pun intended) the forty-eight million Americans who suffer hearing disabilities. 

 

  An additional tragedy concerns the auditory damage that ubiquitous microwave assault is surely inflicting upon fetuses and infants of the Wireless Age. It may be years before medical science fully understands the extent of hearing and brain function loss by vulnerable populations who are Wi-assaulted long before their auditory systems are fully developed. Microwave radiation, with its affinity for water, easily travels through the amniotic fluids of the uterus where this toxic energy is then amplified. [31] RF/microwave radiation is a gross teratogen (causes birth defects) by virtue of its ability to destroy DNA and alter genes. [32]