Is 'health monitoring' really worth exposure to hormone-disrupting 'forever chemicals' and constant data mining?
Fitness trackers and smart watches have become a staple of modern life, with well over 100 million Americans using these devices to monitor their health.
More recently, they've gained popularity with children, many of whom will no doubt head back to school after the holiday sporting their very own unsightly high-tech wristwear.
[...] A recent study from the University of Notre Dame revealed a rather shocking truth: These devices are loaded with toxic chemicals. Many fitness tracker bands contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as "forever chemicals" due to their near-indestructible nature.
Expensive bands, ironically marketed for quality, often have the highest levels of these harmful substances.
[...] Exposure to PFAS has been linked to various health issues, including cancer, hormonal disruptions, developmental delays in children, and weakened immune systems.
Among the most troubling effects is the potential for hormonal disruption, particularly in men, where PFAS exposure has been associated with plummeting testosterone levels. Given that testosterone plays a critical role in male health — affecting everything from energy levels to muscle mass and mental well-being — this trend is deeply concerning.
For wearable devices, the problem lies in dermal absorption — the process by which these chemicals seep into the skin during prolonged contact. Since wearables are often worn for hours, if not around the clock, the skin acts as a direct pathway for these harmful substances to enter the body.
TFA also touches on the data goldmine of personal information that can often be shared with third parties.
DOI: Alyssa Wicks, Heather D. Whitehead, Graham F. Peaslee, PRESENCE OF PERFLUOROHEXANOIC ACID IN 4 FLUOROELASTOMER WATCH BANDS
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Frosty Piss on Tuesday December 31, @10:13PM (1 child)
Honestly, how did this click-bait get selected?
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday January 02, @04:27PM
Blame it on the effects of forever chemicals being absorbed into the body.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday December 31, @10:26PM (13 children)
It's not schools that change the sex of our children, it's Big Tech.
And guess who Trump is best buddy with now that he won the election and the Hero of the Working American charade can be dispensed with? Big Tech.
In other words, Trump is turning little boys into little girls!
(Score: 2, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 31, @10:44PM (10 children)
>Expensive bands, ironically marketed for quality, often have the highest levels of these harmful substances.
Not surprised. You wouldn't want to wear a nasty cowhide band, would you? More forever chemicals means longer lasting.
As for population scale sexual modification by industry, they have been putting big boobs on their young girls in Texas (and elsewhere) with many chemicals such as:
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday January 01, @12:11AM (2 children)
You are aware that puberty happens for male children too, aren't you?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 01, @01:35AM (1 child)
PCBs and other chemicals trigger early onset puberty in boys and girls.
8 year old girls with developing breasts get noticed more easily.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 01, @03:53AM
Noticed by whom?
I think 8 year old girls with developing breasts will notice more easily 9yo boys with a shadow of mustache.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mcgrew on Thursday January 02, @06:49PM (6 children)
...they have been putting big boobs on their young girls in Texas (and elsewhere)...
When I was in the sixth grade in 1963, there was only one girl in class with breasts. The poor girl was accused of stuffing a bra with paper, and suffered a lot of other ridicule.
When my daughters were in sixth grade in the nineties, every girl in their classes had breasts, some quite huge.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 02, @06:57PM (5 children)
I recall a bus ride in 7th grade where two girls in the seat behind me were conferring on the best way to get their breasts to grow. Silly 7th graders: it's not the milk that does it, it's the Bovine Growth Hormones and other chemicals.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday January 02, @09:00PM (4 children)
Bovine growth hormone? Apparently I'm about to be arrested for breaking Poe's Law. BGH does not affect humans. It's the artificial estrogen from plastics that's giving everybody boobs. When I was growing up in the '50s and '60s, the only men with boobs were five foot five and four hundred pounds.
"Artificial estrogen" isn't, of course, what it's called, but it has the same effect.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 02, @11:22PM
>BGH does not affect humans.
I stand corrected by science, though on the face of it I would not be at all surprised to learn at some later date that science hasn't uncovered the whole story yet and there are some significant things they just hadn't looked at yet.
>When I was growing up in the '50s and '60s, the only men with boobs were five foot five and four hundred pounds.
They prescribe Risperidone to a rather large number of young boys with Autism, moobs are just one of many side effects. We discontinued it for our son before anything like that happened, it just made his problems coping with the world worse, not better.
https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-6283-2034/risperidone-oral/risperidone-oral/details [webmd.com]
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by quietus on Saturday January 04, @10:09AM (2 children)
You do know that bovine growth hormone is not allowed to be used in the EU, don't you? I wonder why.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday January 05, @07:12PM (1 child)
It's banned in Europe due to concerns about potential health risks to both cows and humans, including increased risk of udder infections in cows and potential links to cancer in humans.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 2) by quietus on Monday January 06, @09:11PM
Got it, thanks -- irony meter was temporarily offline.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 01, @12:06AM (1 child)
FTFY.
Because "plummeting testosterone levels" doesn't also mean "skyrocketing estrogen levels".
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday January 02, @06:52PM
A woman is a womb man, or "wo'man". A woman is a man who was born with a womb. If you weren't born with a womb, you're not a wo'man.
Our species is called "mankind" for a reason.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 4, Disagree) by damnbunni on Tuesday December 31, @10:27PM (17 children)
Even if it's true, that's some pretty terrible fearmongering writing.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 31, @10:48PM (16 children)
It almost seems like they are intentionally overstressing the dangers of forever chemicals in an effort to desensitize people to the news.
Yes they are bad, yes they still are found in new products, and that's not going to change immediately.
It took 50+ years to get the red dye out of kids' cereals in the US, making the world safe from forever chemicals will be a much harder change.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 01, @12:21AM (14 children)
A lot of this stuff makes more sense as enemy action than self-parody, but well, there it is.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 01, @02:59AM (13 children)
https://www.sciencealert.com/common-plastic-additives-may-have-affected-the-health-of-millions [sciencealert.com]
Do you doubt it?
I certainly don't doubt the lead effects:
https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.14072 [wiley.com]
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 01, @03:46PM (12 children)
The article starts off with the weasel word, "may" in the title. So yes there is plenty to doubt. Lead has both well documented harm at particular doses as well as dosage in the population. No similar connection is established for PFASs or microplastics. Instead it's narratives of detectability and conflation of more harmful chemicals with less harmful. It's reasonable that they make a similarly solid case for plastics as they do for lead, right?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 01, @06:29PM (11 children)
>It's reasonable that they make a similarly solid case for plastics as they do for lead, right?
It is reasonable, though "forever chemicals / microplastics" - subtly distinct from plastics in general, has had a an even bigger head start into basically 100% population penetration than even lead did, and lead is still out there doing damage:
https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-022-00936-x [biomedcentral.com]
So, 100 years in gasoline, 40+ years virtually unrestricted, and there are still other uses exposing people which we _might_ get stopped by 2035: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(24)00244-4/fulltext [thelancet.com]
Is this the standard of good protection of the general population from serious harm that you hope to see continue well past your own demise?
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 02, @12:01AM (6 children)
Lead had a several thousand years head start. I figure modern tech won't take that long to find real problems.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 02, @12:16AM (5 children)
A real problem for modern tech would be a decline in demand for treatment, that's not projected to be an issue:
https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/ocs/statistics [cancer.gov]
As a modern person, I have a different definition of "real problem."
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 02, @03:30AM (4 children)
I have evidence for my real problems. You have yet to have evidence for yours.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 02, @02:36PM (3 children)
>>As a modern person, I have a different definition of "real problem."
>I have evidence for my real problems. You have yet to have evidence for yours.
https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/ocs/statistics [cancer.gov]
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 02, @06:34PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 02, @06:55PM (1 child)
This is philosophy, not proof, but I find it disturbingly on-point for something written over 50 years ago:
https://archive.org/details/illich-conviviality/page/8/mode/2up?view=theater [archive.org]
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Disagree) by khallow on Friday January 03, @01:53AM
or
What is missed is that a lot of big problems are being solved in the process of this "escalation" and alleged instability (global improvement of poverty and personal well-being among other things). It's yet another narrative of futility which ignores the amazing progress we did and still do. It doesn't matter how cute or seductive these stories become. They are wrong for us because they are blind to what actually works for us.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday January 02, @07:11PM (3 children)
So, 100 years in gasoline
Before the 1900s when automobiles started becoming common (most people still used horses a quarter of a century later, and horses were used in WWII), gasoline was a waste product of lamp oil manufacture.
Yes, I realize that there were automobiles since well before 1870, but it was the 1920s before they started putting lead in gasoline, and it was outlawed in the 1970s (the gas pumps were redesigned so it had to have been designed for lead, and putting leaded gas in an unleaded car was a felony).
Leaded gas was used for roughly half the time you cite.
Offtopic point about leaded gasoline: I pumped gas for Disney from 1980 to 1985. A Kentucky state Sinator (misspelling deliberate) pulled up in his Caddilac and demanded that I put leaded gas in his car, a federal felony, and produced an illegal gizmo to make the leaded pump nozzle fit in his unleaded car (some older cars required lead).
The asshole tried to bully me, threatening me with all sorts of shit I knew wasn't about to happen. If I was half as evil as that senator I'd have called the Florida State Police on him. It pissed me off.
Why are there lawmakers who have no respect for the law? Why are you voting for these evil people?
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 02, @11:17PM (2 children)
> it was the 1920s before they started putting lead in gasoline, and it was outlawed in the 1970s
Yes, but... the article points out, accurately, that the final removal of lead as an additive in gasoline didn't happen until 2021. I agree with you: the significant bulk removal happened in the 1970s, it was an excellent start, but there were still tons of lead being pumped into the air through various niche exception engines in the US until 2021.
>Why are there lawmakers who have no respect for the law?
Why do you think they got into politics in the first place? For the power to break the law, of course.
>Why are you voting for these evil people?
I'm not, at least not when they show themselves - as has been happening with startlingly increasing frequency in the past 10 years.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday January 05, @06:46PM (1 child)
As it's behind a paywall I can't read it, but Google says that leaded gasoline was completely phased out in 1996 in the US.
Why do you think they got into politics in the first place? For the power to break the law, of course.
Some, surely, at least the less intelligent of them. However, although everyone I've asked says that all in congress are crooks. The odds of all 535 being crooks is statistically incredibly improbable. The are, believe it or not, honest people and patriots, many of whom are in office.
However, for all 535 of them to be victims of extortion isn't at all unlikely after Citizens United replaced our democracy with plutocracy. "Nice campaign ya got there, Senator. Be a shame if the Acme corporation gave your opponent's campaign two million dollars instead of them giving you each a million. Here's what I think nyou should do..."
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday January 05, @08:10PM
>535 being crooks is statistically incredibly improbable. The are, believe it or not, honest people and patriots, many of whom are in office.
I do agree, I have met some genuinely good people who were holding or has held national office. I have also met a couple of snakes who can put on a convincing face. Mostly upon meeting them in person I was impressed with how little personal power they seemed to be capable of exercising - more a puppet of the office rather than master of anything.
Agreed on Citizens United. Corporations are not people and they have no legitimate claim to the rights of people in the political process.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 01, @07:13AM
It sounds a lot like the people emphasizing how *dangerous* words are, in an attempt to get them censored.
There is nothing short of absolute removal from the environment of these chemicals that will satisfy these people. ("For the benefit of everyone! Even if you don't want/need it, or care.") Until that's achieved, it is of paramount importance to remedy the "problem". The same is true of those who are offended by their disliked words: they will go to any length to ensure that others cannot use those words, and they will harp over and over about what amounts to nothing.
The problem is, there are too many people (politicians) who do things just to appease people who continually make noise (regardless what is done). Sigh..
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DadaDoofy on Tuesday December 31, @10:45PM
Of what use is a study that does not mention the specific manufacturers in the results? From notebookcheck.net:
"Although the study didn’t mention specific manufacturers in its results, Apple has stated that its Regulated Substances Specification caps PFHxA levels at 25 ppb for the compound and its salts and 1,000 ppb for related substances."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 01, @02:11AM
I'm not brain-dead sheeple enough to own a "smart" watch.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday January 01, @12:00PM
I keep putting off getting a PineTime but I've read the sleep monitoring lets you trigger your morning alarm to when you finish your sleep cycle and before you start a new one given a certain margin to your desired wake up time. So, with that that early morning grogginess probably accounting for a few extra cups of coffee, plenty of stress and the odd traffic accident or two... Another nice feature (assuming it works) should be to combine the sleep cycle prediction with a networked shower boiler to have morning showers. Anyhow, they're open source and the sleep tracking software is available: https://github.com/thiswillbeyourgithub/SleepTk_pinetime_sleep_tracker [github.com]
Anyhow, I guess I'll add a leather strap for whenever I get one? It's been on my TODOs for years if being honest...
compiling...
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Wednesday January 01, @12:28PM (2 children)
... from any other plastic stufff we touch and wear all the time? Ah, yes, there is a very traditional approach to fixing this very problem in watches - make all touchable surfaces either glass, or food-grade stainless steel, or silver, or gold, or brass, or leather. Everything else goes inside.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday January 01, @03:30PM
Ironically I think the problem is they're trying, and failing, to do that. Somewhere around 1 in 5 people have at least a minimal allergic response to nickel. So why is "food safe stainless" made partially of nickel, safe(ish) for those who have a reaction? The strategy is if it takes a daily dose of meh single digit milligrams of nickel to set off an allergic reaction, simply erode/corrode maybe a thousand times slower per day.
I have a stainless pot I cleaned and shined up and passivated with IIRC citric and a decade later you can still see my reflection so the erosion rate has to be slower than "optical wave per decade" which is pretty slow. Admittedly it doesn't get a huge amount of use, but you can still see yourself in the reflection which is cool.
Anyway I imagine the plastic band makers are getting smacked by the same people from the opposite direction of "plastic environmental disaster will last forever in the environment" etc. Also some of the more "interesting" chemicals are not cheap so its not like they're motivated to use American wrists as a dumping ground.
Overall I think a much higher quality plastic would be "safe-ish".
Just because they use plastics in medical stuff doesn't mean its safe; clearly the medical complex doesn't care about American's health and IV bags and parts are/were made of PVC with "interesting" additions and that is/was a big area of contention. Probably if you've ever had one IV in your life you were probably exposed to worse stuff than wearing a wrist band assuming you at least occasionally wash, bathe, etc. Although the exposure from a fitness band would be focused right on your wrist.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday January 02, @07:34PM
Plastic isn't the problem with the watchbands, PFAS chemicals (polyfluoroalkyl substances) are. "Forever chemicals" they're called, and are carcinogenic. So are PCBs.
All of America's electrical linemen working before 1980 are all dead, from liver and lung cancer, most dying before age 60. The transformer oil had PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls, very carcinogenic and it resided in circuit boards as well).
They (including my late dad) worried about the PCBs about as much as you anti-environmental Trumpies worry about PFAS chemicals. Dad died from liver cancer at age 82. His dad was killed by an industrial accident, but his grandpa who I met when I was four lived to 103 (he was alive during the Civil War) and his mom a hundred. Again, most linemen he worked with were dead in their sixties and none past seventy. Transformer oil cut his life short by a couple of decades.
Wake up, kid, stop listening to orange billionaires and listen to the scientists unless you want to die young like everyone my dad worked with.
BTW, a Republican led congress started the EPA, and it was signed by Republican Nixon. Trump and Musk would call them "woke". Today's Republican party is NOTHING like the party of my youth. They stopped being conservative and started becoming authoritarians; fascists, who value money over life sometime during the Shrub administration.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday January 01, @03:34PM (1 child)
Plausible, although I understand this was self reported. May be based on sales figures. Google was famous for designing fitbits to fail after two years to match the annual new product release cycle so the number bought is probably higher than sold. I only buy Xiaomi products now. A quarter the price, ten times the features, longer battery life, last twice as long (so far)
I go to the gym every other day and lift, and even I don't use that feature. Thats something people talk about doing and talk about liking not something they actually do. Most people use it to display phone notifications on their wrist, I don't need to grab my phone and "do" something if its not important. Many people get them because their company/insurance wants to parent them. I know exactly two cardiopeople who do actually use them to track peak heart rate etc.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday January 01, @03:37PM
so the number sold is probably higher than used
"It's been 15 seconds since you last successfully posted a comment" I'm slowing down in my old age
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday January 02, @03:48PM (1 child)
Bands. Back when I wore a watch, before cell phones obsoleted them, the first thing I always did after buying a watch was to replace the bands. They design them for looks, not comfort.
The headline should have been "your smart watch band is poisoning...
However, your watch band is the least of your exposure to these poisons. The damned shit is EVERYWHERE.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday January 02, @04:40PM
Some fitness tracker bands may not suit your personal style preferences because musical tastes vary.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.