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WHO: Turn down that loud music

February 27, 2015

The World Health Organization says more than 1 billion people risk permanent hearing loss by exposing themselves to loud music and other sounds. WHO recommends limiting the use of personal audio players to an hour a day.

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Headphones
Image: picture alliance/Markus C. Hurek

More than 1 billion people risk permanent hearing damage from loud music, according to the World Health Organization. Data from middle- and high-income countries show that almost half of all 12- to 35-year-olds listen to their personal audio devices at unsafe volumes. About 40 percent of young people also expose themselves to damaging sound levels at nightclubs, bars and sporting events.

"As the intensity of sound increases, the permissible time for safe exposure reduces," said Dr. Shelley Chadha, a WHO expert on hearing impairment. She added that humans could endure up to 85 decibels - equivalent to heavy traffic - for eight hours. However, Chadha said, the safe exposure time halves with every three additional decibels, making volumes of 100 decibels safe for only 15 minutes.

"Teenagers and young people can better protect their hearing by keeping the volume down on personal audio devices, wearing earplugs when visiting noisy venues, and using carefully fitted, and, if possible, noise-canceling earphones or headphones," the WHO reported. The agency urged youth to take short listening breaks and restrict their daily use of personal audio devices to less than one hour, and concert venues to offer protective earplugs and quiet zones to their customers.

'When you can't understand conversation around you ... this is too loud'

Chadha said many people did not realize how loud the volume on their devices could get. She added that someone who, for example, turned a personal music player up to 95 decibels for a 30-minute subway commute "is going to get irreversibly damaged in a couple of years' time."

She gave the vuvuzela as another example. The popular wind instrument became infamous for its constant buzz in stadiums during the 2010 soccer World Cup in South Africa - it also has a sound intensity of 120 decibels, and over nine seconds of exposure could result in irreversible hearing damage. "It is something we can live without," Chadha said, referring to the instrument's ear-killing whine.

The doctor said that manufacturers should consider displaying the intensity level on devices. Barring that, consumers could look out for themselves by knowing that, as a general rule, "where you cannot understand conversation around you, you know that this is too loud," Chadha added.

About 360 million people worldwide live with disabling hearing loss caused by a variety of factors, including chronic infection, rubella and exposure to noise, according to the WHO.

mkg/msh (AFP, dpa, AP)