In the news: A recent study performed by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) found disturbing information claiming that teens who listen to their iPods and MP3 players at volumes relatively louder than adults experience symptoms of hearing loss.
The ASHA notes that it’s not solely MP3 players and iPods that are responsible for these signs of hearing loss. Instead, it’s the combination of length of time and volume at which the teens are listening to music through headphones that is responsible for the damage.
Thankfully, teenagers seem to have some understanding of this. The ASHA’s survey shows that nearly 70 percent of students say that they are “likely” to turn down the volume of music when listening to it through earphones. However, 58 percent said they weren’t likely to cut down on the time they spent listening to music with earphones on. “Louder and longer is definitely not the way to use these products,” says Brenda Lonsbury-Martin, PhD, ASHA’s chief staff officer for science and research.
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) offers three basic rules for limiting the damage done to your children’s ears by listening to iPods and MP3 players:
1. Make sure that he or she can hear normal conversation voices while listening to music through headphones
2. Limit the amount of time he or she spends listening to any type of music through headphones to one hour a day
3. Set the volume of their music player no higher than 60 percent of the maximum
Originally posted on August 9, 2006 @ 4:18 pm
