Pump up the volume - but risk permanent hearing damage

Scientists are warning that listening to music through earphones, at high volumes, can cause permanent hearing damage - they say noise-induced hearing damage above 80-85 decibels is a known phenomenon and such damage can be prevented to a large extent by reducing the noise exposure levels and duration.

The scientists say 1 in 10 people with personal MP3 or CD players, who listen at high volume for more than one hour each day over five years, put themselves at risk of permanent hearing loss and this applies to millions of people including many children and adolescents.

A study by the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) found that between 5 and 10% of listeners, the equivalent of 2.5 to 10 million people, could be at risk.

It is estimated in recent years that the number of young people with social noise exposure has tripled since the early 80's and between 50 and 100 million people now use personal music players on a daily basis - many listeners turn up the volume above harmful levels of over 89 decibels to block out noise from traffic or public transport.

The independent EU committee was asked to conduct the study because of concerns over widespread use of music players among young people and while EU safety standards restrict the noise level of personal music players to 100 decibels, there is increasing concern about excessive exposure to music at high volumes which can cause irrevocable damage.

EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva, says there is concern that so many young people, in particular, who are frequent users of personal music players and mobile phones at high acoustic levels, may be unknowingly damaging their hearing irrevocably.

The Commission will now look into whether technical improvements could minimise hearing damage and consider changes to safety standards to protect youngsters.

Last year, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf found more than half of young people who use MP3 players listen for longer periods than that and when the volume levels of 110 listeners were tested, 72 were found to be above 85 decibels.