1.1 billion teenagers and young adults are at risk of permanently damaging their hearing.
43 million people aged 12-35 have hearing loss and the prevalence is increasing.
How long do you listen to music and how loud is the music? Take a look at the figures above, you might be one of those figures.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested that people should cut down the number of hours they listen to music to one hour a day in order to protect their hearing.
The report implicated audio players, bars and concerts as culprits that were posing ‘serious threats’ to the hearing of people.
WHO said, half of people between the ages of 12 – 35 in rich and middle-income countries were exposed to unsafe sound levels from personal audio devices. Meanwhile 40% were exposed to damaging levels of sound from clubs and bars.
The WHO suggests that 4 minutes is the safe listening time for mp3 players at the maximum volume (105 dB).
Dr Etienne Krug, the WHO’s director for injury prevention, stated that “What we’re trying to do is raise awareness of an issue that is not talked about enough, but has the potential to do a lot of damage that can be easily prevented.”
The full report argued: “While it is important to keep the volume down, limiting the use of personal audio devices to less than one hour a day would do much to reduce noise exposure.”
Dr Krug said that a good ambition aim: “That’s a rough recommendation, it is not by the minute, to give an idea to those spending 10 hours a day listening to an mp3-player. But even an hour can be too much if the volume is too loud.”
The World Health Organization recommends keeping the volume to 60% of the maximum as healthy enough.
