Tinnitus: The Most Common EMF Symptom Complaint of Residential Callers. Is 5G to Blame?

There has been an exponential increase in callers complaining of tinnitus, ringing in the ears. We have always had the occasional tinnitus complaint, but the complaints began increasing at the outset of the pandemic and coincidently began at the same time that the new 5G bands below 900 MHz were activated.

We have all had ringing in our ears from radiofrequency signals from one source or another. These high-pitched ringing sounds, usually quite loud by our perception, occur when we catch a radio wave received by a metal dental filling, or just the tooth, which is crystalline bone, or our jawbones. Hearing ringing pitches could come from any RF source, not necessarily anything above the natural hearing range.

Catching the occasional RF wave with a dental filling is not the same as having tinnitus, which has been considered a neurological issue. However, as a growing number of physicians are calling electromagnetic radiation a cause of a panoply of contemporary health issues, perhaps tinnitus warrants scientific consideration.

It would be a stretch to blame 5G for ringing in the ears because radio frequencies are inaudible to humans. Human hearing ranges from 20 Hertz to 20,000 Hertz, the equivalent of 20 kilohertz (20 kHz). Most adults probably hear frequencies up to about 18-19 kHz. But this limited hearing range does not necessarily rule out 5G as a possible cause of our tinnitus, does it?

When measuring RF or any other EMF, I take into account the ten harmonics above and below the signal, whether it is RF or low-frequency. Sometimes, there is a harmonic that, for one reason or another, will ”ring” higher than the others in the series. Often, the reason for this anomaly can be found through troubleshooting. These ringing harmonics, although usually inaudible, are what will help define the shape of the wave on the oscilloscope. And, often, we can see these harmonics, pluck them out from the spectrum, and analyze them further. We can also do a deep measure or reduce the time span to capture more detail.

Many broadband RF meters and spectrum analyzers have a demodulation function that will permit the user to hear a processed version of an RF signal. This sound is demodulated or lowered by a factor of 10x so that the waveform can be presented through a speaker within the audible hearing range. For 5G to demodulate into the audible range for us, it would have to vibrate our teeth, jawbone, ear canal, or any combination.

Now, back to 5G. If a typical 5G frequency signal, say 785 MHz, were the direct cause of the ringing, then it would need to be demodulated down 100,000 times to get to 7,850 Hertz (7.85 kHz). Now, a dishonest or not very talented scientist would say, “See, you just proved it. 5G can not be the cause of tinnitus! However, different materials respond to different frequencies. Further, we do not yet know whether a subharmonic frequency far below the 785 MHz signal is causing the ringing. Do we? These frequencies are showing up, but assigning them as subharmonics of 5G is difficult to verify because of bandwidth congestion.

The good scientist would push on to devise test procedures to verify or rule out any hypothesis. He or she would also scrutinize their testing procedures by creatively setting up a variety of verification tests that approach from a wide range of perspectives.

Definitely proving whether 5G or any RF frequency is causing tinnitus would be an interesting study. First, testing would need to be conducted in an anechoic chamber. Bone and teeth would first need to be tested using an RF signal generator, an RF amplifier, an emitting antenna, a spectrum analyzer, an oscilloscope, and acoustic sensors to measure any sympathetic vibrations. If these vibrations fell within the audible range, then it is quite possible that these particular frequencies at a certain amplitude threshold could result in hearing them, since the jawbone and teeth are so close to the eardrum. Or, perhaps, the eardrum itself is vibrating from the RF.

The only way to determine if something in the eardrum is sympathetically vibrating would be to use human or animal cadaver parts, or synthetic material such as various plastics or silicon that approximate these parts.

All told, a good scientist, which seems to be a dying breed, would run tests such as these to either rule out or verify whether RF in the 600-900 MHz range causes ringing in the ears.

Finally, if 5G or any other EMF is causing neurological disease resulting in tinnitus, then the CDC would be the federal organization to look into this further, one would hope.