iPod Damage to Hearing

Warnings on cigarette packages in Thailand show vivid pictures of the ageing effect of smoking. Listening to high levels of MP3 sound produce hearing deterioration associated with old age.
People have to use personal stereo systems wisely or they will rapidly accelerate the aging of their ears. If it’s loud enough or you listen long enough, you’re going to cause permanent damage to your hearing.
The Walkman, allowing individuals to hear music independently of performers or fellow listeners, privatised the enjoyment of an art form that had evolved as the most social of the arts. Now the price is being paid; the technology has advanced to provide high quality sound to an individual, but sound which is capable of destroying the hearing of the listener. The best selling private music provider, iPod, is the new Frankenstein of hearing which has turned against its master.
The guitarist Pete Townsend learned from personal experience that wearing headphones in the studio left him with serious hearing problems. He now has to take 36-hour breaks when working to let his hearing recover. "Hearing loss is a terrible thing because it cannot be repaired," he said. " If you use an iPod or anything like it, or your child uses one, you may be OK. But my intuition tells me there is terrible trouble ahead."


Townsend’s intuition has now reached the courts. At the beginning of February a complaint was filed in a California court against Apple Computer, charging that the company’s iPod music player could cause serious and permanent hearing loss to users. The lawsuit contends that iPods are capable of emitting sound between 115 and 130 decibels, about the level of an air raid siren. Besides, the design of the bud-like earphones channels the sound deep into the ear canal, maximising the danger of hearing loss. While the suit has been lodged against iPod, all MP3 players pose the same danger. Such devices can hold thousands of songs and play for hours. A doctor in the Children’s Hospital in Boston reflects; “The kid who cuts my grass uses an iPod. The lawn mower noise is about 80 to 95 decibels. If he is listening to his iPod 20 decibels above that, he’s in the range of 100-105 decibels. At that level he shouldn’t listen for more than 8 to 15 minutes”. This reflection can easily be translated to the Bangkok environment where the ambient noise level can equal that of a lawn mower, resulting in the same iPod level when those listening to recorded music must set the level high above the ambient noise