It's a debate older than the Chicken Vs Egg, does listening to your iPod/MP3 player on high volumes damage your ears? Obviously the answer is yes, without a doubt. Look at The Who, they're all deaf from years of playing hideously high volume rock music. Yet, the debate still rages on. A study today revealed that millions of Britons are risking their hearing by listening to music at a volume louder than a pneumatic drill. Here's the latest statistics-
-One in ten people regularly turn their radio up to a higher volume than a pneumatic drill
-One in six people listen to their MP3 player at a level which is more deafening than an aeroplane taking off.
-One in twenty people listen to music louder than a train hurtling past in a station, a car alarm or a screaming children.
-One in five people have been left with ringing ears after listening to blaring music for a long period of time.
Despite the dangers being apparent, it seems us Brits are happy to risk permanent ear damage for our spinal-tap level music. We're either a very rock and roll nation or a very stupid one. Peter Worthington, director of The Hearing Company who commissioned the study said: "These results prove that most Brits are blissfully unaware how a simple everyday pleasure of listening to music can actually be harmful to their hearing. Damage begins when ears are exposed to noises louder than 85 decibels for prolonged periods of time. A pneumatic drill, for example, reaches 110 decibels, which means that millions of Brits are listening to their music at a level of almost 40 per cent higher than is naturally safe."
Can you hear that, the sound of the hearing aid companies rubbing their hands with glee, oh you can't?
One thought on “Brits Continue To Damage Their Hearing With iPod’s”
You can’t blame the Brits for this. US iPods come with lower volume levels than the EU ones and the reason you need loud music is because the headphones are so poor that they don’t cut out the outside noise. Better fitting noise reduction style earphones means you need less volume but the majority of people just use the ones that come with the product and these are always cheap rubbish.