Avid iPod users who wonder if they are putting their hearing at risk may find some relief in a new study that tries to arrive at guidelines for safe listening levels.
The key to avoiding hearing damage, the researchers say, appears to be limiting not how long one listens to music but its volume. The study was presented at a recent conference on noise-induced hearing loss in children.
The researchers, who are audiologists, concluded that the average young person could listen to a player at 70 percent of full volume for 4 1/2 hours without much risk.
But listening to the music full blast for just five minutes can affect hearing, they said.
The guidelines, the study said, are generally applicable to other music players. The study also found that it does not much matter whether listeners use headphones that cover the ears or fit into them.
The real risk, they added, may come when people listening to music do so in a noisy environment. There is a tendency then for them to turn up the volume of the player. Earphones that block outside noise may be helpful.
The study was prepared by Brian J. Fligor of Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard, Terri Ives of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry School of Audiology and Cory Portnuff, a graduate student at the University of Colorado.
