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Hazardous Substances Found In All Headphones Tested By ToxFREE Project (theguardian.com) 95

Posted by BeauHD from the would-you-look-at-that dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: You wear them at work, you wear them at play, you wear them to relax. You may even get sweaty in them at the gym. But an investigation into headphones has found every single pair tested contained substances hazardous to human health, including chemicals that can cause cancer, neurodevelopmental problems and the feminization of males. [...] Researchers say that while individual doses from particular sources may be low, a "cocktail effect" of daily, multi-source exposure nevertheless poses potentially severe long-term risks to health. [...]

Researchers bought 81 pairs of in-ear and over-ear headphones, either on the market in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria, or from the online marketplaces Shein and Temu, and took them for laboratory analysis, testing for a range of harmful chemicals. "Hazardous substances were detected in every product tested," they said. Bisphenol A (BPA) appeared in 98% of samples, and its substitute, bisphenol S (BPS), was found in more than three-quarters. Synthetic chemicals used to stiffen plastic, BPA and BPS mimic the action of oestrogen inside organisms, causing a range of adverse effects including the feminization of males, early onset puberty in girls, and cancer. Previous studies have shown that bisphenols can migrate from synthetic materials into sweat, and that they can be absorbed through the skin.

"Given the prolonged skin contact associated with headphone use, dermal exposure represents a relevant pathway, and it is reasonable to assume that similar migration of BPA and its substitutes may occur from headphone components directly to the user's skin," the researchers said. Also found in the headphones tested were phthalates, potent reproductive toxins that can impair fertility; chlorinated paraffins, which have been linked to liver and kidney damage; and brominated and organophosphate flame retardants, which have similar endocrine disrupting properties to bisphenols. Most were, however, found in only trace quantities.
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Hazardous Substances Found In All Headphones Tested By ToxFREE Project More

Hazardous Substances Found In All Headphones Tested By ToxFREE Project

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  • This is Bullshit! The dose is the poison. And the dose is too low.

    • This is Bullshit! The dose is the poison. And the dose is too low.

      The clickbait is the poison.

      Fucking hell do I hate it when people never consider root cause. It allows poison makers to thrive.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by caseih ( 160668 )

      Yes we used to think that. Now we know that there are many chemicals that at low does accumulate in the body to detrimental affect. For example, PFAS chemicals and also the chemicals mentioned in the study: BPA and BPS.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Actually, they did not even seem to have measured the dose you get. Obviously, the assumption of it being too low to have any real effect is a valid one, but the laziness in this "investigation" is stunning. Sounds like they just scraped off a bit, threw it into a gas-chromatograph, looked up what they found and called it a day.

  • All of the high-end earbuds and lots of the low-end ones have silicone ear pieces. Some of them are even uncolored.

    • I though this was going to be a fleshlight related comment.

      • Fleshlight patent describes the main squish material as 90-94% mineral oil plasticizer. US5807360A [google.com]

        I was at a university lecture where someone from the Fleshlight distributor was invited to speak.

        • Device for discreet sperm collection
          [...]
          2. The device of claim 1, wherein said elastomeric gel is formed from a mixture of plasticizing oil and a block copolymer selected from styrene ethylene butylene styrene block copolymers and styrene ethylene propylene styrene block copolymers.
          3. The device of claim 2, wherein said elastomeric gel is formed from a mixture of 5-9% by weight of said block copolymer and 90-94% by weight of said plasticizing oil, and trace amounts of pigments and fillers.
          4. The device of claim 1, wherein said device has the appearance of a flashlight.

          It's discreet because no one will notice a guy fucking a flashlight!

  • Do not eat the headphones, (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mspangler ( 770054 ) on Saturday February 21, 2026 @10:10AM (#66002628)

    Do not eat the headphones,

    Do not grind the headphones into a fine powder and the inhale it.

    Do not put powdered headphones into jockstrap.

    Got it. Sounds like every other Safety Data Sheet. (Formerly material data safety sheet, or MSDS).

    • Do not put them on your skin either. As you can absorb BPA. Maybe not that quickly with your hands or ears. Probably don't put ear buds in your nose or your butt.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        That really is the question. Or rather how much you get that way is the question. And how dangerous that would be. But this "investigation" does not seem to have an answer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Yep. Short version: Doing stupid things may be hazardous to your health.

    • The skin is an organ, and absorbs a surprising amount of whatever it comes into contact with.

      Wouldn't be quite so glib.

      Maybe this is low-risk, or maybe it's delivering concerning compounds into our bodies. Maybe would be good to know.

  • In other news... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by russotto ( 537200 ) on Saturday February 21, 2026 @10:36AM (#66002656) Journal

    All headphones likely also contain "chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth anomalies, or other reproductive harm."

    Maybe there's actually an issue here. But a group calling itself the "ToxFREE Project" strikes me as to be far more like the State of California and its Proposition 65 warnings than an objective observer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Funny thing, the same warning is on some toasted seaweed that I like. But you should limit these to one pack per day anyways due to Iodine content. And then the other stuff really is just background noise.

  • Prolonged headphone use? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday February 21, 2026 @11:03AM (#66002684)

    These chemicals are present in many stiff plastics. Most stiff plastics do *NOT* touch your body. In fact headphone manufacturers go out of their way to make sure stiff plastics don't touch your body because when they do they are uncomfortable.

    Tell me what chemicals are in the fake pleather cover of the ear foam, or the headband foam. Everything else is irrelevant.

    *This post brought to you by the dose of chemicals picked up from the plastic stiffener used in my keyboard*.

    • Re:Prolonged headphone use? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Waffle Iron ( 339739 ) on Saturday February 21, 2026 @11:29AM (#66002720)

      Tell me what chemicals are in the fake pleather cover of the ear foam, or the headband foam. Everything else is irrelevant.

      Generally, the softer the plastic, the more plasticizers have been added. Plasticizers are usually the chemicals of concern, because they are often endocrine disrupters.

      I'm pretty sure these plasticizers routinely leach out of headphone pads because the pads on every pair of headphones I've owned over the past 40 years has gotten brittle and disintegrated after a few years of use.

      • Indeed. Other common chemicals of concern involve fire and UV resistance. Some plastics are just naturally soft, but some grades of them are produced with additives.

        I have Sennheiser HD420s, they have a soft plastic short plush covering which I bet is releasing all kinds of plasticizers.

        • HD424 yellow foam pads crumbled after several years. Most things that I've had of polyurethane foam from the 70s/80s, either crumbled or turned into goo by the 90s. Los Angeles air pollution might've been a factor.

          • Mine crumbled too. I got some foams for another model and cut them down to fit, I forget which though. What I really need is to find another cord before I finally manage to murder this one, I've run it over with my chair a whole bunch of times and they must have made it out of black box material.

      • Generally, the softer the plastic, the more plasticizers have been added. Plasticizers are usually the chemicals of concern, because they are often endocrine disrupters.

        While you may be right, it's worth mentioning that you are off topic. The study specifically looked at BPA which is the antithesis of soft plastics, as it is effectively a hardening compound in production of various plastics. Do the pleather earpads contain plasticizer? Maybe, but that's not what was tested for, and not what the article is talking about.

        • Not 100% true. From the Wikipiedia article on BPA:

          PVC can contain BPA and its derivatives through multiple routes. BPA is sometimes used as an antioxidant in phthalates, which are extensively used as plasticizers for PVC.

          This is followed by several other uses of BPA in PVC.

          • You're making assumptions for your leap of logic. BPA is largely used in rigid plastics in consumer headphones. While you're right they can be used as additives to plasticisers in flexible things like PVC, the fake leather pads that touch your head and cover your ears -the soft things- are not made from PVC, but rather PU. PVC, regardless of how much plasticiser you throw at it isn't very comfortable. It will typically be used on hard wearing / commercial pleather like on an office chair.

            Sidenote PU also br

  • Start making nice kid leather ear pads for over the ear headphones.

    • What chemicals are in your leather?

    • Ought to be pretty easy to start a cottage business on Etsy doing that.

      Most of the earpads of over the ear headphones I have use a type of vegetable protein leather. It tends to fall apart after a few years but the major brands have a lot of third party producers.

    • It's not as nice but I found silicone works best for the noise canceling sony... Aliexpress sells them. It lasts forever and can be cleaned. Normal headphones are best with cotton covers sold for pilots who have long days with headphones on; those need washing but handle moisture/humidity well.

      Leather is like the silicone but hard to clean or look clean, is stiffer, just about as hot it won't last nearly as long. - I doubt most leather pads are thick enough to last much longer than the cotton ones.

  • Unless they can quantity the effects and actually say what happens if I wear these? There are many chemicals that are detectable but don't have much of an affect.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      The thing is, modern gas-chromatographs can detect stuff in doses so extremely tiny that you can find all sorts of stuff that does not belong. But at these low concentrations, almost nothing of it matters.

      I ignore any article that pontificates about "harmful chemicals" without discussing actual dosage and derived risks with actual numbers.

  • Takeaway: Don't eat headphones (Score:5, Informative)

    by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 ) on Saturday February 21, 2026 @12:13PM (#66002776) Homepage

    Most of these harmful compounds are harmful if you *eat* them, not if you *touch* them. They are undesirable for use in microwave ovens because the heat can cause some of the chemicals to leech into the food they contain. But at room temperature, the chemicals almost entirely remain in the plastic.

    If these researchers want to raise the alarm, they need to do some measurements of how much of these chemicals can be absorbed through the skin. Just the presence of the chemicals is not enough to raise concern.

    • Mostly correct, but over time the body oil from your ears, hair, and skin tend to soften up plastics and make any non-polar chemicals much easier to transfer and absorb.

      As someone with oily skin and hair, I know it can happen more quickly than you might imagine. In my first car, the paint on the door where I rested my arm became soft and pliable after only a couple years, and I didn't drive much.

      • It's possible that oil could cause chemicals to leech from the plastic into your skin. But is this actually demonstrated by research, or just supposed?

        Your car's arm rest might be soft and pliable just due to the repeated pressure from your elbow, it might have nothing to do with oils, and that softness may or may not lead to chemicals leeching.

    • There was a study posted here on Slashdot a year or two ago about how significant amounts of bisphenol A are absorbed through the skin from holding receipt paper.

      It sounds like the BPA on receipt paper is a surface coating, whereas in plastics it's distributed evenly throughout the material. So to guess, it probably transfers more easily off the receipt paper than hard plastic. But getting through the skin doesn't seem to be a problem.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        significant amounts of bisphenol A are absorbed through the skin from holding receipt paper.

        Not a problem. All of my transactions are cash, no reciepts, no taxes paid. If the state comes after me, I'll have them charged with trying to poison me.

        • I don't use cash because it is printed by an illegitimate organization that uses violence to enforce it's laws. (all governments)

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by caseih ( 160668 )

            I assume you also stay off the roads and avoid using any and all government-provided services as well. And you're not connected to your local government-owned utilities either.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by PPH ( 736903 )

            I don't use cash either. But only because my wife already went through my pockets.

      • Toxicity is a matter of concentration. Studies have shown that the *primary* source of BPA in the body is through ingestion. It's not clear yet if receipt paper or contact with plastics, result in enough chemical exposure to rise to the level of toxicity in the body.

  • it is reasonable to assume that similar migration of BPA

    Are you sure? Is it reasonable to assume when it is just skin contact? Unlike food, most people don't insert headphones in any cavities that have mucous membrane.

  • More concerned about recipts (Score:3)

    by BrendaEM ( 871664 ) on Saturday February 21, 2026 @04:36PM (#66003104) Homepage
    Bis phenol-A in thermal paper is a much wider, common threat.
  • Yes it might have some bpa in it, but for it to really be harmfull you have those headphones on/earphones in for like 24/7 months/years at a time and sweating continuously. This is just another one of those clickbait articles, making it sound worse than it actually is. But of course trying to reduce these additions is the way forward, but by what are they gonna be replaced, that might be even worse as this.

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