European officials want listeners to lower the volume, preparing legislation that will reduce the default maximum volume on MP3-players including iPods. Regulators plan to apple a volume limit to 85dB, equivalent to the racket on a busy city street.<\/p>\n
Authorities are concerned with data showing that youth deafness is on the rise, including a report last year which found as many as 10 million people in the EU risk permanent hearing loss from listening to loud music. According to industry reps speaking on BBC1’s Politics Show, Brussels will begin a two-month consultation in January and a final agreement should follow in the spring.<\/p>\n
While most of the world lets iPod users blow out their ears in peace, Apple has already implemented a volume limit on their European devices, of 100dB \u2013 equivalent to a bulldozer groaning by. This was implemented to comply with French legislation, passed in 1996, that limits music-player volumes. Users quickly developed hacks to disable the cap.<\/p>\n
Under the EU’s new plan, devices would be set with an 85dB limit default and users who wished to become, er, deaf would be able to turn it off in the settings. Experts say hearing damage begins at around 78dB. “It’s the sort of damage that in the old days would have come from industrial noise,” Dr Robin Yeoh, an audiology consultant at the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, told the BBC. “Once you damage the nerves of your inner ear that’s permanent, there’s no medication, no surgery, no therapies that’s going to reverse it.”<\/p>\n
A representative for the MP3-player industry criticised the proposed measures, calling 85dB too low a limit. “85dB would not be appropriate because noise coming from traffic, engines and so on would obliterate the sound,” said Tony Graziano, a rep for DigitalEurope. “The solution must lie in a balance between safety and enjoyment of the product by the consumer.”<\/p>\n
Some European MP3-players are capable of a volume of more than 115dB, experts claim. “If we compare that with health and safety legislation,” said Stephen Russell, from consumer group ANEC, “workers are not allowed to be exposed to that level of volume for more than 30 seconds.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
European officials set to restrict volume on digital music players to 85dB \u2013 about the same level of noise as a busy city street<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[160],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n