Warning: turn your MP3 players down!
Millions of young people across Europe could suffer permanent hearing loss after five years as they listen to MP3 players with a high volume for more than five hours per week, scientists warned on Monday.
The scientific study, commissioned by the European Commission, was the concept of “leisure noise,” the children and adolescents must be protected against increasingly high levels of noise - with strong mobile phones also come for the critical.
“It is increasingly concerned about the exposure of the new generation of personal music players that can reproduce sounds at very high volumes without loss of quality,” the Commission, the executive, said in a statement .
“Risk of hearing damage depends on the level and duration of exposure,” he said. More and more young people were exposed to the significant threat that the tourist noise formed the hearing, he said .
The Commission’s experts estimate that between 50 and 100 million people listen to portable music players on a daily basis.
If only they listened to five hours per week over 89 decibels, they are already members of the EU to limit the noise in the workplace, she said. But if they listened for longer periods, they risk permanent hearing loss after five years.
Scientists have calculated the number of people in this category risks between five and 10 per cent of listeners, ie 10 million people in the European Union.
Sales of personal music players have soared in the EU countries over recent years, especially in MP3 players.
Commission experts estimate unit sales between 184 and 246 million euros for all portable audio devices only in the last four years, including MP3 players vary between 124 and 165 million euros.
Mobile phones used at high volume has also been under fire by Meglena Kuneva, EU Commissioner of Consumer Affairs.
“I am concerned that so many young … who are regular users of personal music players and mobile phones to high noise levels, may unconsciously be irrevocably damaging their hearing, “she said in the statement.