Listening to loud music with earphones on a digital music player for more than 90 minutes a day can damage your hearing. So, ha to all those people that sit next to me on the tube with their iPods playing way too loud. I'd mock them direct, but I doubt they'd hear me.
The latest claims regarding personal music players and hearing loss come from a new US study of 100 medical students which recommends that anyone who listens to music at 80% of volume capacity (the point at which researchers consider the music to be 'loud') should not use their MP3 players for more than 90 minutes in any one day.
Researchers add that occasional listening at that volume for long periods is not so much a problem, but regular listening in that fashion poses a real risk. Study author Brian Fligor told Reuters: "If a person exceeds that on one particular day and happens not to use their headphones for the rest of the week, they're at no higher risk. I'm talking about someone who's exceeding 80 percent for 90 minutes day after day, month after month, for years."
The study also reports that listening to portable music players at 10% to 50% of maximum volume for long periods poses more or less no risks, while at 100% volume more than five minutes of listening can pose a risk. Researchers say their findings apply to both children and adults, though they haven't looked into whether children are more susceptible. They also report that there is no real difference between brands of digital music players or genres listened to in terms of effects on hearing.
Fligor added that the hearing problems caused by sustained listening to loud music can take up to ten years to become noticeable, which makes people more prone to take risks. He concluded: "I worry about the teenager who's going to be 23, 24, 25 years old and has a measurable noise-induced hearing loss and now has another 60-something years to live with his hearing which is only going to get worse".
Of course, people listening to loud music on portable music devices is nothing new, but focus on the implications of using such devices on hearing has increased of late because newer digital devices allow people to listen to music louder than ever before, while enhanced battery technology allows longer listening.