Todd Kleperis shares his take on the rumbling health concerns surrounding wearable tech, like the Apple Watch. While one side is wary of potential health effects, the other claims there is no sustantial evidence to warrant such fear. Read on and share your thoughts!

1. The Trials of Wearable Tech
The cases for and against the impact on health

2. Rise of Wearable Tech
The introduction of Google glass
signaled a new wave of
technological innovation: Wearable
Tech. While not the first, Google
glass was certainly at the vanguard
of leading discussion.

3. What Happened to Glass?
For all the hype, Glass was a relative failure. Why?
• Too much hype: Glass never made it out of Beta, but many thought it
was “a fully consumer backed product”, not realizing the kinks in the
software had to be worked out.
1
• At $1500, it was way too expensive for a beta product.
2
• Hard to think of applicable professions and situations in which it would
be useful.
3
1 (http://bgr.com/2015/03/18/why-did-google-glass-fail-astro-teller/)
2 (http://gizmodo.com/the-problem-with-google-glass-and-everything-else-you-1692021376)
3 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewcave/2015/01/20/a-failure-of-leadership-or-design-why-google-glass-flopped/4/)

4. Filling the Void
Technology learns from its past
quite well, and new pieces of
wearable tech are making a
splash to a much warmer
audience. Coming to mind are
products like:
• Fitbit
• Apple Watch and other smart
watches

6. Concerns
But they aren’t without their share
of backlash.

7. Most notably, the biggest attack came from Nick Bilton’s
New York Times Style piece, “Health Concerns in
Wearable Tech”. Big takeaways are below:
• Bilton acknowledges that enough data isn’t in to draw
conclusions about wearable tech.
• However, we can use existing data about cell phone
tech and radiation.
• A WHO panel study revealed mobiles could be
“possibly carcinogenic”.

8. Bilton Takeaways (cont.)
• But, further the device is form the head, the safer it is
• Another study concluded extended usage of cordless or
mobile phones could lead to certain types of brain
cancer.
• The only safe wearable tech is that without 3G built in.
• This is because Bluetooth and WiFi do not have the
same negative effects.

9. Rebuttal
Some are dismissing these claims as bunk, for several reasons.
The following are from an NYT Opinion column1
:
• Column relies on studies that have not been evaluated for
reliability.
• Language is decidedly alarmist and click bait-y.
• His main source, Dr. Joseph Mercola, has questionable
qualifications.
1 http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/a-tech-column-on-wearable-gadgets-
draws-fire-as-pseudoscience/?_r=1

10. Other Counter-Arguments
• The study that linked mobile usage to increased brain
cancer risk is the only study to do so.1
• Mercola has been slammed by the FDA for making illegal
claims about his medicines.2
• Even with millions of cell phone users, incidences of brain
cancer hasn’t jumped.3
1 http://www.techtimes.com/articles/40897/20150319/apple-watch-raises-health-concerns-will-cause-cancer.htm
2 Id.
3 http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/03/19/wearable_tech_and_health_nyt_fear_mongering.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_ru

11. Conclusions
For now, no one has come forward
with conclusive evidence against
the harms of wearable tech. This
doesn’t necessarily mean there
won’t be, but for now there
shouldn’t be a reason to run from
the future. Share your thoughts in
the comments!