Old Man EU Tells Consumers to Turn Down the Racket
According to an EU study, listening to your MP3 player too loud is bad for your hearing. In other news, the Pope wears a big hat.
EU Scientists from the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) say that between five and ten percent of those who listen to their MP3 players on max volume for more than an hour each day for five years, risk permanently damaging their hearing.
The report put the growing number of people exposing themselves to dangerous levels of noise when listening to their MP3 player as down due to improved sound quality with in-ear headphones. According to the SCENIHR, between five and 10 per cent of listeners (amounting to 2.5 to 10 million people across Europe), could be at risk of permanent damage or loss of hearing.
This isn’t really news. Almost everyone has seen the warning in your MP3 player manual or on the headphone packaging that says using the earphones at maximum volume could damage your hearing. The International Herald Tribune reports that Meglena Kuneva, the EU consumer affairs commissioner, plans to announce plans Monday for a conference in Brussels in 2009 to evaluate the findings with national governments as well as representatives of industry and consumers.
EU spokeswoman Helen Kearns said regulators would look next year at lowering the EU legal limit of 100 decibels for MP3 players.
- Blu-ray Player on the Cheap! $149 from Samsung
- Microsoft + RIM = MicroBerry?
- Apple Announces Oct. 14 Event; No One Surprised, Everyone Excited
- Investor: Yahoo Should Sell to Microsoft for $22 a Share
- GeoEye Satellite Captures First Images
- Bold Dropped in UK, Speculations About U.S. Delays
- Xbox Experience Finally Dated November 19
- First Network Using Quantum Cryptography Demonstrated
- New Star Wars MMO in the Works
- BlackBerry 8220 Flip Phone on Sale Today
- T-Mobile Sells 1.5 Million G1s in Two Weeks
- YouTube to Run Full Length Episodes of Star Trek, 90210
- Fewer People Downloading Music Illegally
- Quest for the World's First "Thinking" Computer
- PS3 2.50 Firmware Adds In-Game Screenshots and More
- Samsung Hits U.S. Notebook Market
- Obama Uses Xbox 360 Video Games to Campaign
- Windows 7 Now Officially Named... Windows 7
- Digg Clone Launches With Focus on Finance
The Pope wears a big hat? 4srs?
Kind of pointless to regulate something like that. There are so many combinations of headphones and players that produce many possible maximum SPL. Then what's next, car audio, home theater, concerts? My two cents.
At max volume I would instantly damage my hearing..... Maybe it's just the metal I'm listening to but still. If people want to damage their hearing let them.
I may hate the US, well just it's government, but at least I can listen to my MP3 player at whatever volume I want to.
Sorry to say this but the comments here are shocking. I would hate to know that a $200 iPod that I gave to my child is going to destroy his hearing in later life.
This isn't impeding on civil rights, it's just common sense. Kudos to 'old man EU'. What kind of half-assed headline is that anyway?? My 13 year-old nephew would be embarrassed to come up with something lame like that.
Mohsin Wadee
South Africa
I guess I can understand why the EU is doing this, and it will likely happen at some point in the US. Why? Because the people that lose their hearing from listening to too much music. Some, like the group who see their cars as nothing more than mobile sound systems interfere with other people's lives with their bass. Then when all these people lose their hearing they cry that someone needs to help them and my tax money gets wasted. That, and/or they hire a lawyer, sue the company for making the product, and the price for everyone else goes up. While I'd say...let this serve as a warning...it doesn't matter...our health and legal system is messed up and noone will be held accountable for their actions, or this case, hearing.
Not like you can't just build a Cmoy headphone amp or equivalent for $20.
If 10% of listeners equals 10 mio people, then I must assume that 100 mio people in europe listen to mp3s at their player's full capacity. Either their numbers are exaggerated, or they must be including car audio as an mp3 player as well, cause there just can't be that many students listening to mp3s at full sound level. And 'grown ups' with ordinary jobs probably can't be listening to mp3 music at full sound level for more than an hour a day, on a daily basis.