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Study Links Personal Music Players To Hearing Loss
fprintf writes "A recent NY Times article discusses links between personal music players and hearing loss. This is not anything new; personally, I have hearing loss from listening to my Sony Walkman cassette player many years ago. However, given the widespread use of the personal music players, I see people using earbuds everywhere; is there a technical solution to the potential danger?"
s there a technical solution to the potential danger ?
Yes - very technical. Turn down the volume.
What?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Unfortunately, most people play them way to loud so the only technical solution is to limit the output.
However, since many people find louder music *sounds* better unless every device maker does it those who don't may be at a competitive advantage; leading none to do so other than as Apple did as an option; which was probably more about limiting legal liability than anything else.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
But it also threatens permanent hearing loss for as many as 10 million Europeans who use them, according to a scientific study for the European Union that will be published Monday.
I don't know if this is the report but the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) released a report on this in June [PDF Warning!]. It's not as long as it looks, about a quarter of the pages are citations to other studies. It looks quite comprehensive. It's important to note that this is not a simple thing to study. The report points out several times that your age and daily exposure and anatomical structure all play an important role in what you can tolerate before experiencing hearing loss.
The abstract from that report:
Exposure to excessive noise is a major cause of hearing disorders worldwide. It is attributed to occupational noise. Besides noise at workplaces, which may contribute to 16% of the disabling hearing loss in adults, loud sounds at leisure times may reach excessive levels for instance in discos and personal music players (PMPs). It is estimated that over two decades the numbers of young people with social noise exposure has tripled (to around 19%) since the early 1980s, whilst occupational noise had decreased. The increase in unit sales of portable audio devices including MP3 has been phenomenal in the EU over the last four years. Estimated units sales ranged between 184-246 million for all portable audio devices and between 124-165 million for MP3 players.
Noise-induced hearing loss is the product of sound level by duration of exposure. In order to counteract noise-induced hearing loss more effectively, a European directive "Noise at Work Regulations" taking effect starting February 2006, established the minimal security level at the equivalent noise exposure limit to 80 dB(A) for an 8 hour working day (or 40 hour working week), assuming that below this level the risk to hearing is negligible. The 8-hour equivalent level (Lequ,8h) is a widely used measure for the risk of hearing damage in industry, and can equally be applied to leisure noise exposures. The free-field equivalent sound pressure levels measured at maximum volume control setting of PMPs range around 80-115 dB(A) across different devices, and differences between different types of ear-phones may modify this level by up to 7-9 dB. The mean time of exposure ranges from below 1 hour to 14 hours a week.
Considering the daily (or weekly) time spent on listening to music through PMPs and typical volume control settings it has been estimated that the average, A-weighted, eight hour equivalent sound exposures levels (referred to "Noise at Work Regulations") from PMPs typically range from 75 to 85 dB(A). Such levels produce minimal risk of hearing impairment for the majority of PMP users. However, approximately 5% - 10% of the listeners are at high risk due to the levels patterns and duration of their listening preferences. The best estimate from the limited data we have available suggests that this maybe between 2.5 and 10m people in EU. Those are the individuals listening to music over 1 hour a day at high volume control setting.
Excessive noise can damage several cell types in the ear and lead to tinnitus, temporary or permanent hearing loss (deafness). Published data indicate that excessive acute exposures to PMPs music at maximal or near maximal output volume can produce temporary and reversible hearing impairment (tinnitus and slight deafness). Major discrepancies exist between the results of the studies on permanent noise-induced hearing loss in PMP users, with both, positive and negative studies published. Tinnitus and hearing fatigue may occur more frequently in teenagers chronically exposed to music, including PMP users, than in non-users.
In addition to auditory effects harmful, lasting and irreversible non-a
My work here is dung.
Some players have a dB-limit that can be activated. I remember that my old CD mp3 player did have this. It just did not allow the volume to be cranked up too high.
If it was hard to write it should be hard to read.
they let me listen to my music on a train at a dramatically reduced volume.
I've noticed, many times, that I start out with a fairly low volume (maybe 10% or so), and when a good song comes along, I turn it up a bit. However, by the end of the song, I don't really notice the higher volume anymore, and the next time I get a good song, I turn it up a bit more, until the player is at its maximum volume.
If I take the earphones out of my ears, put them back in an hour later, and turn on the player, I'll pull them out of my ears as fast as I can because the music is so horribly loud.
So the solution, I think, is having a "volume boost" button, which boosts the volume for the duration of the current track, and gradually decreases to the normal level during the next track, to avoid stacking up the boosts.
Study links cigarettes to lung cancer.
This is not hatred. This is retribution. This is not revenge. This is justice.
"...is there a technical solution to the potential danger?"
Education. Lots of films. Let's get a grant.
Does bone conduction cause the same problem? If not, Vibe Body Sound Headphones may be an answer.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
How does that help? If you have hearing loss, the obvious solution is to turn UP the volume, so you can hear the music better, of course.
Seriously, this is a "Ric Romero" report to borrow a Fark term: High volumes for extended times cause hearing loss. News at 11. The only reason why portable players are any more significant in this than anything else is that since you can take them with you all the time, you have the opportunity to do the wrong ting more often.
There is no technical solution, because the maximum output of a player depends on the headphones plugged in to it. Plug in some low impedance IEMs with high efficiency, and you'll find that it may be able to produce SPLs in excess of 120dB no problem. Plug in some low efficiency high impedance professional phones, and you may find it struggles to do even 70dBSPL. Thus you can't set up some sort of magic limit that'll be ok for everything. A limit that would protect your ears with Shure IEMs would be damn near inaudible on Sennheiser 580s.
There are two things you can do to protect yourself:
1) Turn the volume down. Really, it is that simple. Just don't set the things so loud and it isn't a problem. That is ultimately what you have to do.
2) Get phones that isolate better. The reason why some people abuse the volume dial is to try and drown out noise. Don't do that. Block the noise instead. Instead of cheap earbuds, invest in some good IEMs. Yes, it is going to run you $100-300. Deal with it. If you can drop hundreds on a iPod, you can drop hundreds on good phones to go with it. Then take the time to get the right fit for your ears so they create a good seal. That will attenuate sound nearly as much as good earplugs.
With good earphones, you should be able to keep the volume down and still enjoy the music. You keep the volume down, there's no problem.
Loud noise, no matter what the source, is dangerous to your hearing especially over long periods of time. Playing loud music on speakers is just as bad as headphones. Only difference is you can do it all day on headphones and nobody will yell at you. Just turn that shit down to a reasonable level. If you can't because things are too noisy, get better headphones to block the noise.
I DON'T HAVE AN MP3 PLAYER AND MY HEARING IS JUST FINE!
Although DJing white noise in an industrial club every other weekend probably doesn't help
Today's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. -- Hunter S. Thompson
Some people turn up their music so that it really is loud in their ears. Most people, however, turn it up so damn loud to get the desired signal (music) above the background noise: car traffic, car interiors, subways, crowds, airplane cabins. When the noise floor is already pretty loud (50-80 dB), you have to pump up the volume on that music player ever higher to be able to "hear" it. There's psychoacoustics involved beyond just the overlapping audio sources. Music played that loud, even if it doesn't seem loud (because it's only, say, 10-20 dB above the noise floor) is actually well above the NIOSH limits on what can be a safe prolonged exposure. Result: hearing loss.
The only real solution that will allow you to hear your music (or cellphone, for that matter) without having to crank it up to damage-inducing volumes, is to reduce the noise floor. This can be done pretty easily with passive noise attenuation - padded headphones can give you a few dB of attenuation of low frequencies, and tens of dBs at higher frequencies. Earbuds offer almost no passive noise attenuation, although they could do a little bit if they sealed off the ear canal. Unfortunately, big padded headphones are a lot more conspicuous than little white earbuds, and they didn't come with your iPod, and you can't easily stow them in your pocket.
The other alternative is active noise reduction, like the Bose QuietComfort. You can even find noise-cancelling earbuds, although they tend to not work as well. Unfortunately, ANR doesn't come cheap if you want something that actually works and doesn't ruin your listening experience. Still, digital signal processing with low-power components will probably make this more widely-available in the future....if you can still hear anything by then.
>>is there a technical solution to the potential danger?"
I used my mp3 player on a couple of flights. When I into a quiet hotel room and used it again i was shocked at the volume level i had used on the flight. If you are on a plane (train or buss as well), you tend to play it loud to drown out the bakground noise.
As I fly quite a bit, i bought a pair of noise reduction headphones. I went for a $75 pair at first, as I could not see the point of spending $300 on the Bose headphones. The $75 pair were pretty rublish, not much effect at all, so I splashed out another $300 on a pair of Bose noise reduction phones. They may be expensive, but they are worth the money as you can use a much lower volume setting and still hear everything very clearly.
I really recommend them as a way to protect your ears if you travel by plane, train or bus a lot. The luxary of having a cocoon of tranquility on the flight is also very nice to have.
Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated up.
...my study indicates that this is a correlation and not a causation. I show that a lack of common sense is more apt to cause hearing loss.
blog |
The earbuds aren't designed to seal the ear canal so people have to run the volume so high on them to get above the noise level.
Apple's only concern is to include the cheapest headphones possible. Unfortunately, the white earbuds are a (pathetic) fashion statement, and they sound good enough that most people keep them.
I used to use a pair of these even when out and about. Yeah they might make you look a bit silly, but there are upsides. The sound quality was awesome (as far as I can remember). Also, a driver approaching you as you cross the street can plainly see that you've got music on and may not be able to hear them.
I found it remarkably easy to "get over" receiving funny looks, and really enjoyed the quality of the sound.
These days the kids play their music on their mobile phone *speakers* for crying out loud. What is it? Do they actually hate music so much that they'll squeeze it out of a mobile phone in crap-o-sound form?
mind: boggles
Since when does listening to music make your eyes stop working? i swear most of the people who do that are just plain stupid
Make a player that you can only turn up to 9.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
I got myself a pair of these headphones: http://www.trustedreviews.com/multimedia/review/2006/03/20/Acoustic-Authority-iRhythms-A-9900-Sound-Cancelling-Headphones/p1 - Acoustic Authority iRhythms which are noise cancelling. Pair it with my Samsung T10 and you have cost effective quality audio with sub 60khz bass to knock your socks off (if you like).
I reckon people turn up their earbuds so they can hear bass or treble but really anything out of an earbud is going to be tinny - especially if it's coming out of an ipod. I'm pretty sure if they got themselves a decent pair of equipment like those they wouldn't feel like compensating for anything with volume.
Just as has already been stated: If you listen to stuff too loud it will damage your hearing...
But is this so much of an issue? You can turn down the volume yourself...
I find that places where you can't affect the volume are a much bigger problem. I always have earplugs when I go to nightclubs these days, I don't want my tinnitus to get any worse. I can't tell the DJ to keep it down, but I also want to go out.
A lot of movies are insanely loud these days, but fortunately there usually are quiet passages to let the ears rest.
For me the worst damage to my ears has actually come from a rather surprising source: My own kids. We even measured 110 dB (in front of the mouth) from one of them when they were little. So what to do when they are crying? I'm not gonna go running for earplugs every time I need to attend to them...
I guess the bottom line is everything taxes our hearing. Wise people protect it to a sensible degree.
.: Max Romantschuk
At that distance, it's safe for MY hering.
It makes a change from a goldfish, I guess.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
The real problem is to determine whether you are playing the music too loudly for your safety. Here is how to get a good idea of the harm you are doing ...
1. Find something like a watch or other device that makes a very quiet sound. Find a distance where you can just make out the sound.
2. Listen to your music source at your customary level for 15 to 30 minutes or longer if that is your habit.
3. Set up the conditions in (1) above and see if you can still hear the sound. If you can, you are probably not harming your hearing ... If not, then you have a temporary threshold shift and you have already done some small amount of damage to your hearing. The greater the shift, the greater the damage.
4. More likely, if you listen to loud music or listen in inherently noisy places, you will notice the threshold shift in daily life. background noises disappear, which is like 40-50dB SPL, and definitely a problem.
These hearing conservation links explain a lot Mp3 players are not the only culprit, driving with wind noise in your left (or your passenger's right) ear, circular saws and construction tools, and other sources of noise are damaging. Music is different in that it can not be blocked but can be controlled.
If you don't protect your hearing from loud sound, sooner or later a notch will start to form in your ear's frequency response curve. The notch will be centered around 4000 Hz, right where high frequencies get really high, and useful too. That notch widens above and below until it impacts 2KHz or even lower. Somewhere along the way, the detectors in the ear will get so damaged that they start detecting sound non-linearly and harmonic and intermodulation distortion arise. Finally, when they get injured some more, they start to fire "all or none" and even moderately loud sounds can be painful. That is called recruitment and is really damaging to hearing and sanity.
I hope this information is useful to readers. I hate to see people lose hearing when it is so unnecessary in most cases.
If you think your hearing is going bad, see an audiologist or ear doctor or both, soon. Most processes can be stopped, and believe me, you will be glad you at least stopped the damage.
I am pushing 60 years old, have used threshold shift changes to remind me to protect my hearing, and still have no noise notch in my good ear. My other ear was damaged by childhood infections and is mostly useless so I guess having only one ear made me more careful.
Being a graduate audio systems engineer, one thing that springs to mind is to make speaker drivers in headphones less resonant between 3-5khz. It seems all I hear on bus/tube journeys from people listening to music is the hissing zingy twang of cymbals and guitar distortion.
The fact that this range is around the resonant frequency of the human ear canal means that this (already quite prominent) range of frequencies is amplified further by your body.
If earphones were more linear in their response perhaps people wouldn't damage their hearing as much - or turn up the volume.
The atmosphere and objects in the environment naturally dampen high frequencies. So, if you are listening to a set of stereo speakers 15 feet away, the high frequencies are significantly reduced compared to if you put your ear right next to it. Likewise, putting an earbud in your ear means that there is NO roll-off (dampening) of high frequencies. As a result, your ear is getting a huge dose of high frequency noise. Proper modeling of this and filtering of high frequencies would go a long way to curbing hearing loss. Don't count on people turning down the treble on their own. We've grown accustomed to it, and really the hardware should do it for us.
"The problem isn't just the ear buds. There's a LOT of ambient noise in offices today, thanks to noisy fans in computers. "
Another reason to use thin clients. Now if we could only look at the hearing loss amongst IT professionals.
I've switched to bringing my laptop into work. Since it runs linux, it does everything I need as a developer, and it's QUIET. I plug my secondary display into it, jack in the eathernet cable, and I'm good for the day (the boss freaked over my "unauthroized" access point ... but it was a hit with the other workers, and was more secure than the one he was using :-). For now, I can't turn off my former desktop because it's also serving files for some test machines ... but the smart thing would be to consolidate everything when there's time (yeah, spare time - what's that???).
A modern 17" linux laptop with 4 gigs of ram, a full-sized keyboard, twin 320 gig hard drives, 2 screens ... quiet AND energy efficient. What's not to like? If everyone stopped whining about how laptops "can't be desktop replacements" and switched, we'd have less noise pollution, save money on AC, not have to replace the batteries in our UPS every 2 years, as well as cash in on the savings wrt the direct cost of electricity to run the computer. It's time to scrap desktops as the inefficient energy and space hogs that they are.
What you want are "in ear monitors" a.k.a. "canalphones." These are like earplugs with a sound transducer in the center. They attenuate ambient noise by up to -23dB, depending on the model. With that much attenuation, you don't have to turn them up to dangerous levels to hear them, even on the subway. They're designed for musicians so they can hear what they are playing on stage without blasting it over everything else. They coil up into a pouch that fits into your pocket. Plus, they sound very good. Some have reference quality sound and will sound better than any other pair of headphones available unless you listen in a silent room.
Downsides: if you can't handle a plug in your ear then you can't use them, but you can get a custom molded earpiece that makes them very comfortable. Also, the cable can conduct handling noise into your ear, though this isn't a problem with the "pro" versions that hook over your ear or the ones with very thin and pliable cables.
The biggest downside is you cannot hear anything around you with them on, which can make them very dangerous to use in traffic and other situations.
Manufacturers include Etymotics, UltimateEars, Sensaphonics, Shure, and probably a couple others. I've been a big fan of the Etys/Sensaphonics. I recommend the Etymotic ER-6i. Get the ER-4P if you have more money to spend and want better sound. Both of these are high impedence models that work well with an ipod or laptop without a separate high current amplifier.
Once you start using these things you will be spoiled for anything else.
Even if you can pay for things that does not mean you are not affecting others.
In places with a socialized health care system (civilized countries mostly) it is to state the obvious that the state will protect innocent bystanders of the carelessness of others as well as promote socially responsible conducts in order to maximize health care resources.
In places where the law of the jungle prevails, even if you can afford to pay for care, the health resources are still a finite resource, and by people carelessness demand (by making sick themselves) they increase the cost for everybody of having medical care.
So in as much as you would like to think you are completely free to do whatever you damn please, your actions will have social consequences no matter what but smokers are legendary for their lack of manners and their sens of entitlement, so it is hardly unsurprising to read their rants parading as defense of freedom their perceived entitlement to be socially irresponsible.
The irony to mention the free markets as the solution to social irresponsibility is very poignant today, but I will not labor the point, such attitude nowadays is frankly preposterous.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.