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  • 2023-01-19 (xsd:date)
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  • Online posts falsely claim a man’s electrocution was due to a Bluetooth device (en)
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  • A video of a man collapsing on railway tracks after a live electric cable fell on him has garnered close to a million views in a tweet attributing the accident to him wearing bluetooth earpieces close to high-tension electrical facilities & cables. But the claim is false: the real-life incident, which was filmed in India, was not linked to the use of a Bluetooth device. Additionally, radiation experts dismissed any possibility of electrocution because of a Bluetooth earpiece worn in a high-voltage area. On January 11, 2023, this tweet shared the video alongside a message cautioning the public to avoid using Bluetooth earpieces around high-tension electric cables and installations. The brain might be struck directly by electrical current from the cables precipitating quick death, reads the tweet shared more than 4500 times. In the clip, two men are seen talking next to railway tracks when one of them is suddenly struck by a falling live electric cable. He tumbles backwards onto the tracks while the other man runs away. A screenshot of the false tweet, taken on January 17, 2023 The same claim was repeated in Facebook posts here and here . While the video shows an actual accident, its cause is unrelated to any Bluetooth device. Accident in India A reverse image search on multiple keyframes using the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify revealed news articles covering the incident, which took place in India at Kharagpur railway station in West Bengal on December 7, 2022. According to the reports (see here , here and here ), the victim who was identified as Sujan Singh Sardar and his colleague were ticket inspectors. Sardar was electrocuted by a collapsing live wire – captured in the CCTV footage – sustaining serious burns. Local media quoted the railway station as saying the incident might have been caused by birds as they often pick up small wires. The electrocution by Bluetooth claim was dismissed as not true by Rodney Croft who chairs the Germany-based International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). He told AFP Fact Check that Bluetooth and electrical currents operate on two different frequencies that do not allow alteration. Bluetooth operates using a wireless technology, communicating via ‘radiofrequency’ electromagnetic fields (RF EMFs) that travel through the air. These RF EMFs are of a very different frequency to the ‘low-frequency electric currents used for powering the home and trains, and these RF EMFs are not able to conduct (alter the path of) the low-frequency currents, he said. Accordingly, Bluetooth devices will not cause low-frequency electrical currents to electrocute a person, and it is not dangerous to use them near high voltage wires or trains, he added. (en)
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