Turn down personal music players, EU warns youth

Music lovers risk permanent hearing loss from blasting their  MP3 players too loud for too long, according to a European report, and authorities are considering a reduced limit on sound volumes.

The European Commission requested the study on the risks of "leisure noise," given the widespread use of personal music players and a surge in the number of young people who are exposed to noise and may not notice the irrevocable damage to their hearing.

"It's damage that may come back and haunt you later in life," EU spokeswoman Helen Kearns told a news conference in Brussels on Monday.

The report by the European Union's scientific committee on emerging and newly identified health risks estimated between 50 and 100 million people listen to portable music players every day in the EU.

Listening for only five hours a week at more than 89 decibels would exceed the EU's limits for workplace noise, the committee noted in its report. 

Permanent hearing loss could set in for between five and 10 per cent of people who listen to that level for longer periods, the report's authors said.

"There has been increasing concern about exposure from the new generation of personal music players which can reproduce sounds at very high volumes without loss of quality," the report said.

"Risk for hearing damage depends on sound level and exposure time."

Next year, European regulators will consider lowering the legal limit of 100 decibels for MP3 players, Kearns said.

In 2006, Apple altered its iPod design to limit the volume on its digital music players following complaints and a lawsuit in the U.S. that charged the music players may cause hearing loss.