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Ask HN: Am I the only one who gets temple pain during prolonged calls?

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Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who gets temple pain during prolonged calls?

#11

Post by seabass-labrax »

FirstTimePostin wrote: post #6
codingdave wrote: post #5

Sounds less like radiation or anything like that, and more like an odd muscle cramp from some ergonomic concerns with how you take calls.

In that respect I would more readily believe that maybe the loudness of the call is causing my inner ear some pain. But it really does not feel like that. I am trying to understand why I only get irritated by phone calls and (possibly) microwave ovens, when we are constantly swimming in microwave level radiation. Do phone calls use more energy or something? Can it be related to the transmitted energy? I know most mic…

Radio signal strength follows the inverse-square law with distance, so although a (cellular) phone uses relatively little power compared to other types of radio, your head would absorb more radiation in total with the phone so close.

Layman's idea of mine: if you want to test specifically for microwave radiation, you could locate a cellular phone station (they are easy to find with various online maps, and are usually located on the roofs of buildings or lamp posts) and stand by it. I think that should be a considerably higher amount of radiation at any distance less than a few metres or so compared to holding your phone to your ear. The station will be transmitting constantly in any built-up area because cellular phones communicate with the station periodically even when there are no calls taking place.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who gets temple pain during prolonged calls?

#12

Post by ipaddr »

Have you seen this study? No one has mentioned: transcranial magnetic stimulation, changes in cerebral blood flow

https://bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-23...

"Experiments aimed at explaining these symptoms have shown changes in cerebral blood flow [6, 7], altered electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns [3, 5, 6], and changes in responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation [8] resulting from MP use..."

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who gets temple pain during prolonged calls?

#13

Post by wruza »

No headaches, but my talking ear burns after 20 minutes. May be simply physical (warm phone pushes on it).

I guess there’s no way to learn what happens except for controlled experiment. E.g. hold a turned off phone to your head. Or a cup of semi-hot water. Or use headphones when talking. Or when talking, use one headphone and put a phone to the other side of your head. Or play a youtube video in headphones and put your phone to your head as if you were listening.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who gets temple pain during prolonged calls?

#14

Post by bruce343434 »

wruza wrote: post #13

No headaches, but my talking ear burns after 20 minutes. May be simply physical (warm phone pushes on it). I guess there’s no way to learn what happens except for controlled experiment. E.g. hold a turned off phone to your head. Or a cup of semi-hot water. Or use headphones when talking. Or when talking, use one headphone and put a phone to the other side of your head. Or play a youtube video in headphones and put yo…

Contact dermatitis? I don't know how clean your phone is... Or maybe you have a rare mild allergy for one of its materials, like how some people are allergic to their watches touching their wrists.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who gets temple pain during prolonged calls?

#15

Post by adamredwoods »

Most microwaves are absorbed by your skin and bones, because it's too weak and large (wavelength) to penetrate through your body. If these waves could, we would use it for medical imaging! Instead, we use x-rays which are ionizing waves.

Microwave ovens work differently than cell phones (magnetron), so even though the frequency is the same they operate differently. Microwaves reflect off thick metal, so a quick test would be to put a copper pot or aluminum pan over that spot on your head (not touching it because it would cool your head, negating a non-biased test) and see if the microwave still bothers it.

Another test for your head-spot would be to see if microwaves are actually heating it up, so a spot thermometer might be able to detect it (but I'm doubtful).

FYI, cell phones have much less EM power than microwave ovens, and can't heat anything up. [1]

[1] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/oeuf-the-wall/

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who gets temple pain during prolonged calls?

#16

Post by idontwantthis »

FirstTimePostin wrote: post #6
codingdave wrote: post #5

Sounds less like radiation or anything like that, and more like an odd muscle cramp from some ergonomic concerns with how you take calls.

In that respect I would more readily believe that maybe the loudness of the call is causing my inner ear some pain. But it really does not feel like that. I am trying to understand why I only get irritated by phone calls and (possibly) microwave ovens, when we are constantly swimming in microwave level radiation. Do phone calls use more energy or something? Can it be related to the transmitted energy? I know most mic…

I would try taking calls standing up with earbuds and see if that fixes it before I jumped to ideas about microwaves. Or speaker phone would be even better if your environment allows it.
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