Post by patricia on May 12, 2006 10:22:03 GMT -5
With the increasing popularity of listening to iPods comes a surge in damaged eardrums. It's not the music player that's to blame, though, its the ear buds. Many iPods and MP3 players come equipped with tiny earphones that fit right inside the ears to enhance the audio signal by as much as nine decibels (that's comparable to the volume of an alarm clock or a lawn mower.) Ouch! "No one knows for sure the levels at which iPod users listen to their music, but what we do know is that young people like their music loud and seldom worry about declines in hearing ability," says Dean Garstecki, a professor of communications science and disorders at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. What can we do? Well for starters, we can forget about vanity and invest in a pair of earmuff-style headphones, which are much safer, says Garstecki. He also says that listeners should play their personal music devices at no more than 60 percent of the maximum volume and limit their listening time to 30 minutes a day. ;D
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