Warning on hearing loss from personal music players

Apr 21 2010

By Candy Lashkari

For the generation that cannot imagine living without their iPods here is some bad news. Listening to music at high volume can cause grave damage to your hearing. The risk is even higher for those who use earphones that are inserted into the ear canal as this intensifies the volume. There is growing evidence of young people having poorer hearing when they use such devices on a regular basis.

According to Professor Peter Rabinowitz from the Occupational and Environmental Medicine programme at Yale University when you insert the ear phone into the ear canal the sound can reach over 120 decibels which is the same as the noise made from a jet engine. Having personal music players does increase the potential health hazard of growing deaf by the time you are middle aged.

Statistics collected by the Royal National Institute for the Deaf indicated that two thirds of the MP3 player users listened to music at volumes higher than 85 decibels. Surveys have shown that 90% of young people listen to these personal music players for several hours a day. A combination of the loud and long attack on the ears does result in many risks besides deadness. Listening to music while driving can make you lose concentration and have an accident.

“Clinicians should advise current users to avoid listening to personal music players at maximum volume. Regarding other safety concerns, it would be prudent to advise removing earphones while driving and performing other safety-sensitive tasks.” said Professor Peter Rabinowitz.

As per statistics 16 % adults between the age group 16 to 70 are hearing impaired in the U.S. "As clinicians come to grips with how electronic devices that afford so much pleasure may also produce harm, personal music players provide a reminder that our hunger for new technology should be accompanied by equally vigorous efforts to understand and manage the health consequences of changing lifestyles," wrote Professor Rabinowitz in the British Medical Journal.

Emma Harrison, of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, said "Peter Rabinowitz is right to raise concern over hearing loss from personal music players. Our research shows that 66 per cent of personal music player users are listening to music at louder than 85 decibels, which, according to the World Health Organisation, can cause permanent hearing damage over time.

"The RNID has been working with the the European Union to raise awareness of this problem because people regularly use these devices and are often not aware that they could be putting their hearing at risk. As the EU develops new regulations for personal music players, it is vital that manufacturers and governments are supportive of these plans and work together to protect the hearing of a generation of music lovers.” Said Emma Harrison.