Here’s Why You Should 'Never' Use Your Phone While Charging—'Not Great For Cellular Health'

For many of us, our iPhones contain an abundance of data that help us in our everyday lives. You have contacts to message, apps that increase your productivity at work, apps that keep us on track with our health and fitness goals, navigation apps to guide us from point A to point B, social media apps that connect us to the world outside of our door, and much more. Given the usefulness of our phone, it’s sometimes difficult to keep our hands off of our devices, even when they are being charged and should be left alone.

Maybe you’ve always wondered why you shouldn’t be on your phone when it’s plugged into a charger — this is a fair question. Dr. Janine Bowring, a practitioner of naturopathic medicine, calls out on fairly unknown reasons why she says you should “never” use your phone while it’s charging because it is “not great for cellular health.”

Increasing EMF Exposure

According to Bowring, charging your phone increases your EMF exposure, which she says it’s good for your cellular health, by 15 times as opposed to it not being plugged in. EMF is electromagnetic fields exposure that comes from radio frequency radiation emitted from phones.

It’s important to note here that, despite Bowring’s warning, not all experts agree that EMF exposure is as dangerous to health as it sounds. Because this radiation is non-ionizing and the amount of it produced by smartphones is low, there is no strong evidence that suggests it can lead to serious health issues.

A more pressing reason why you may choose to wait to use your iPhone and allow it charge fully first is because charging it creates a buildup of heat. When you add usage to the mix, this only makes your phone heat up more. Considering how detrimental extreme temperatures are to your phone’s battery, it stands to reason that this increase in temperature only puts your phone’s battery at greater risk of degradation.

If you are concerned about either EMF exposure or battery degradation, some tips to protect yourself and your phone include placing it in a different room when it’s charging so that you won’t be tempted to use it, using speakerphone or headphones to keep the device away from your head, and using text messaging more than phone calls.