Seeing how wireless chargers have been out for quite a few years now, certain questions are being asked more and more these days. For starters, people want to know exactly how safe it is to use a wireless charger on a daily basis and whether the wireless induction technology they employ has any negative effects.
When we discuss negative effects in this context, we do not only refer to potential damages that these chargers can cause to your devices but also to any health hazards they might have. To put it bluntly, there is no definitive answer to any of them on account of how new and insufficiently tested these chargers are.
For instance, some people want to know ifa long range wireless charger can reduce the effectiveness of a phone’s battery. A valid question in itself, the answer is somewhat conditional on account of how many Qi-enabled phones there are and because of how different they are from one another.
According to some of the original engineers who worked on the development of original inductive charging technologies decades ago, the risk of causing long-term battery damage is negligible. Not to say that there is no possible way for inductive charging to damage the integrity of the battery cells, but that the risk is too small to be taken into consideration.
The question then becomes – is inductive charging safe for my health? Well, considering how relatively small the radio waves created by the inductive field are, the potential damage to your general health is also negligible. So unless you press your face against the charging pad, you should be relatively safe both short and long-term.
Magnetic fields
One thing you need to understand about wireless charging technologies is that they operate in the principle of inductive and electromagnetic fields. This involves transmitters that generate an electromagnetic field towards a receptor, which can be part of your phone’s battery but also integrated into other Qi-ready devices.
You see, it isn’t just smartphones and tablets that use wireless charging components but a variety of other, more broadly used tools and gadgets. Among them, electric toothbrushes, medical devices, and even electric razors.
These devices have been thoroughly tested over the years by the International Commission on non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and they have determined that the risk of adverse effects on human health are minimal when exposed to inductive charging.
In many ways, wireless charging might actually be safer than using traditional chargers, in the sense that they reduce a user’s exposure to electrical connectors. This way, the failure probability is mitigated away from any electrically charged components, which in turn reduces the risk of accidental electrocution.
Safety guaranteed
Even though there isn’t a unique wireless charging technology to dominate the industry, the three main technologies that found their way to the market in recent years all share the same safety standards. Be it a short-range or a long-range charger, the radio and electromagnetic risks these chargers raise are minimal.
You will notice that whenusing a long range wireless charger to charge up your phone, the battery might occasionally get a little hot. For some people, this is proof that wireless charging has penetrative and thus risky properties. Well, this couldn’t be farther from the truth because the electromagnetic field it employs doesn’t really affect anything that doesn’t actively respond to it.
For instance, your body doesn’t conduct electromagnetic waves the same way a Qi-enabled battery does, not even when you’re grounded to the floor. This seems counterintuitive for some people but wireless charging involves a completely different type of electric current than traditional chargers.
New forms of wireless charging
Although the technology is still evolving, in many ways the risks associated with it have all been mitigated. Bear in mind that this applies to different types of wireless charging and that despite their effectiveness, they all pose very little threat to your devices and to your general health. Furthermore, there was never a time when wireless charging technology posed any serious risks, not even during its development stages more than two decades ago.
- Residential charging –It isn’t just your mobile devices that will benefit from wireless charging in the near future. Due to the ‘mated pair’ system currently in development, you will be able to employ wireless chargers for a variety of household appliances in just a few years. Despite the greater scale of the technology, there is no realistic way in which this type of charge can harm you or your devices.
- Commercial charging –When we talk about commercial charging, we refer to large charging platforms designed for public and commercial use. It is obvious that although limited at the moment, these charging platforms will become more and more prevalent going forward, to the point where they might actually provide a public wireless charging option for anyone nearby.
- Dynamic charging –This is perhaps the most interesting branch of wireless charging, the type of charging system that delivers its charge while the device is in motion. Everybody should welcome the possibility ofusing a dynamic long range wireless charger to charge your devices on the go, and we’re not really that far off from the point where these chargers can actually exit the development stage.
- High-power wireless charging –Needless to say, wireless chargers are still a long way from reaching their full potential, but this doesn’t stop developers from constantly pushing their boundaries. Even though most wireless chargers can only deliver upwards of 30-40 Wh or so at the moment, their potency is guaranteed to increase at some point.
All things considered, the general risks that wireless charging technologies pose are minimal right now, and there is no fundamental reason for that to change going forward. Although there are still plenty of concerns about their interoperability and other safety aspects that people are still unclear about, they seem to offer more benefits than risks.
