Several headphones sold by leading tech companies across the European Union may contain hormone-disrupting chemicals, raising concerns over long-term health risks, according to a new study.
More than 81 different types of headphones were analysed from over 50 well-known brands, including Samsung, Apple, Sony, and Sennheiser. Every single model tested contained at least some traces of harmful substances such as bisphenols, phthalates, and flame retardants.
Bisphenols are used in consumer products such as food packaging, plastic bottles, feeding bottles, storage containers and some electronics. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), they can interfere with hormone systems and damage reproductive health.
Phthalates, which make plastics more flexible and durable, are found in products like shampoo, medical devices and certain fabrics. Exposure to some phthalates is associated with obesity, insulin resistance, asthma and attention disorders, according to the European biomonitoring consortium, HBM4EU.
The study was carried out by Arnika, a Czech non-profit environmental organisation, in collaboration with the ToxFree LIFE for All project, an EU-funded initiative.
While the study emphasises that the headphones do not pose an “imminent” danger to human health, it warns that chronic exposure carries long-term public health risks, as no completely safe level of exposure has been established.
The researchers disassembled the headphones to collect 180 samples of hard and soft plastics, then a lab analysed whether there were hormone-disrupting chemicals. They tested headphones for adults, children, and gaming, since these headsets are often used for long periods of time.
The headphones were then ranked based on chemical exposure, with safe headphones given a green rating for lowest risk, yellow for being “legally compliant but exceeding stricter voluntary limits,” or red for great concern.
Overall, 44 percent of the models scored a “red” for a great concern of exposure, but only 11 percent of those models had traces of these hazardous materials that had contact with the skin.
This suggests that manufacturers prioritise chemical safety for soft plastic and touch-sensitive parts of the ear, while the other parts of the headphone, such as the hard shell that forms the headphone structure, often contain worrying levels of harmful substances, the researchers said.
The highest concentration of bisphenols was found in My First Care earbuds, a product marketed for children that can be found on platforms such as Amazon. The study did not disclose the exact bisphenol level in that set of headphones.
Phthalates were mostly present in wired headphones and typically in small, legal quantities. However, one pair of children’s headphones sold by Temu had 4,950 mg/kg of phthalates, which is almost five times the legal limit for children’s products in the EU, according to the bloc’s legislation.
The safest headphones were Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 and JBL’s Tune 720BT. Some children’s models, such as Oceania Trading’s Paw Patrol headphones for kids, received red scores for exposure concerns.
Nearly 60 percent of the gaming headsets for adults received a “red rating,” but those for children fared better, with approximately 50 percent of them getting a “green status.”
Euronews Next reached out to the manufacturers mentioned in the study, but did not receive an immediate reply. Dutch media reported that some online retailers, such as Bol.com, CoolBlue and Mediamarkt, stopped selling some headphone models, following the study’s release.