Mousetrap weblog: MP3 health warning

Volumes on personal stereos are likely to be restricted by regulators because of fears that MP3 players and “in-ear” phones are damaging hearing.

Up to a tenth of users are listening to music at levels that could cause permanent hearing loss after five years, an influential scientific commission has found.

Personal music players are allowed to reach 100 decibels. But with “in-ear” headphones the actual sound at the eardrum can reach 120dB.

A report from the European Union's Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks said that there was a danger from long-term exposure to music pumped into the ears above 89dB.

The committee said that rising numbers of people were plugging themselves into loud music every day for journeys to and from school or work.

It found that MP3 devices were a greater risk to hearing than cassette players because of their ability to reproduce sounds at very high volumes without loss of quality. Last year MP3 devices accounted for 83 per cent of all personal music players sold, and about a fifth of new mobile telephones also feature a digital music player.

The committee said: “In the last few years, leisure noise has become a significant threat to hearing because it can reach very high volumes and because an increasing proportion of the population is exposed to it, particularly young people.”

A British study found that 6.9 per cent of people aged 18 to 25 played their personal stereos louder than 90dB. The Royal National Institute for Deaf People has calculated that more than two thirds of young people who regularly use MP3 players face premature hearing damage.

As well as hearing loss and tinnitus, loud noise can also affect the memory, attention, school performance and may even lead to higher blood pressure, according to some studies.

Apple, which makes the iPod, the most popular personal music player, has already introduced software that allows users to set volume limits, after being ordered to remove them from sale in France. In 2006 an American legal action claimed that Apple had failed to take adequate steps to prevent hearing loss because the iPod could produce up to 115dB.

Personal music players are used daily by up to 100 million people across Europe. Add up the hours and the decibels, and the number in the EU risking permanent hearing loss is put at between 2.5 million and ten million people.

The scientific committee has concluded that the hearing loss is negligible at sound levels below 80dB — a feasible new maximum limit for portable stereos.

The study did not, however, address the other risk to the personal music generation — a thump from their neighbours on trains and in streets from irritating noise “leakage” from their high-volume music.

The commission simply observed: “Environmental sounds to which the general public is exposed — such as noise from traffic, construction, aircraft or from the neighbourhood — can be very irritating but are in most cases not loud enough to harm hearing.”

Meglena Kuneva, the EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner, said: “I am concerned that so many young people, in particular, who are frequent users of personal music players and mobile phones at high acoustic levels, may be unknowingly damaging their hearing irrevocably.

“We need 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.”

The European Commission is organising a conference to discuss the findings and is expected to recommend a reduction in the maximum legal volume of portable players.

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