The snappily titled EU Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) has issued some worrying news about the health risks involved with listening to iPods and other portable devices for prolonged periods of time.
The committee has warned that those who listen to personal music players for just five hours a week at a high volume – over 89 decibels – are risking permanent hearing loss after just five years.
The committee have done some calculations and believe the number of people this could affect could be between 2.5 million and 10 million (between five and 10 per cent in the EU).
Protective measures
The problem is so bad that measures are being put in place to protect younger children and teenagers from the effects of hearing loss.
EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva, said, "The scientific findings indicate a clear risk and we need to react rapidly. Most importantly we need to raise consumer awareness and put this information in the public domain.
"We need also to look again at the controls in place, in the light of this scientific advice, to make sure they are fully effective and keep pace with new technology."
Your comments (4) Click to add a new comment
watcherzero
October 15th 2008
4. True, their not the best for noise cancellation but for sound quality ive not found better ear pieces, It can accuratley recreate deep bass that I love in my dance tracks.
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jmace86
October 14th 2008
3. This would be less of a problem if companies were forced to supply supply earphones that have decent prevention of sound leakage with their audio devices, I am especially thinking of Apple whose earphones let in the slightest sound making it necessary to listen to your music at a very high volume, in order to hear it, if you are in a noisy area (on the street, or on public transport, for example).
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noizepol
October 14th 2008
2. Surely it also depends on what earphones/headphones you use as these can vary in actual output volume from make to make., also the volume from one music track to the next can vary a lot. In anycase, how are we supposed to know what 89db realisiticly sounds like? Is there any way to measure this to be sure we are not going over the safe volume?
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watcherzero
October 14th 2008
1. All personal music playing devices in Europe have to be hardcapped at 100db to be legally sold here, I belive US Ipods play at 104db and you can get software to make them even louder.
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