Portable music players may have to carry health warnings under proposals from the European Commission.

Apple, which makes the iPod, and other manufacturers will be asked either to display labels advising users of the damaging long-term effects of loud music on their hearing or to devise a system of on-screen alerts triggered by the prolonged use of headphones at high noise levels.

Under plans to be published today, portable music players will also be required to adopt a default volume setting of about 80 decibels, the level deemed safe for 40 hours use a week. Users will be able to override this and turn up the volume, but the European Commission wants them first to receive a warning from their music device and further reminders if they continue to blast their ears.

“Current safety settings are not good enough to protect people,” a source in the European Commission’s consumer affairs directorate told The Times.

“There will be default volume settings so people can protect themselves and there will be new information requirements either on the screen or on the devices themselves.

“The aim is to make people aware that beyond certain noise levels you risk long-term damage to hearing, but users will be given a choice and have the option to override it if they want to.”

The proposals follow the findings of an EU scientific committee last year that said that between 5 and 10 per cent of portable music users risked permanent hearing damage because they listened to too much music through headphones at or above 89 decibels, a level deemed safe for up to an hour a day.

They committee suggested that up to ten million people in the EU could be left with impaired hearing in 20 years' time, prompting a call for action from the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID).

Officials say that the maximum volume of portable music devices ranges between 80 and 115 decibels and that earphones can add a further seven to nine decibels on top by taking the sound straight into the ear.

They say that tough regulations are needed after research showed that portable music devices were regularly being played too loud for too long because of technological advances. Users were more likely to play music loudly because it suffered from none of the distortion experienced at high volumes by cassette tape players in the pre-digital era.

Today’s proposals will be discussed with industry representatives before being finalised. They will be given time to make technological adjustments to the manufacturing process for products coming on to the market in two years’ time.

Meglena Kuneva, the EU consumer affairs commissioner, has said that the scientists’ warning was a cause for concern and awareness of the risks needed to be raised. After the launch of today’s proposals in Brussels, Ms Kuneva will visit London tomorrow for talks with the RNID, which has been campaigning for years for more controls on harmful noise levels.

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