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It’s Too Loud - EU Acts On MP3 Players

The European Union commission is seeking a set limit for the maximum volume on all MP3 & MP4 players sold within the EU. This will apply to the popular iPod

The EU proposals follow after the latest report published in 2009 that highlighted that up to 10 million citizens in the EU are in danger of permanent hearing loss as a result of listening to loud music for long periods of time

Experts at the EU Commission would like the default maximum volume to be at 85 decibels. However users could override this set limit and turn the volume to a maximum limit of 100 decibels.

At the beginning of this year, an eight week consultation of all EU standardization committees started on these proposals to limit volume. It’s expected that the final agreement would be reached within 3 months

Perturbing results were brought to light at research facilities where some MP3 players were tested by researchers. A number of of the MP3 players had a maximum volume level of 120 decibels, which is equal to a jet aircraft taking off. This is the issue that the EU intends to tackle, as currently no set safety default volume level applies.

Although personal media player manufacturers have to by law, publish information about risks in the instruction manuals. For all practical purposes though, nobody reads these, and it doesn’t actually stop the user from increasing the volume to maximum. What’s more,research has shown that hearing loss amongst younger people is increasing as a result of the use of listing to loud music on earphones.

MP3 players are perceived as being more dangerous than CD players or the ‘Walkman’ because they can store many hours of music and have a long battery life, which means that users can listen to them continuously for long periods without a break. Often while driving when the volume is very height to drown out outside noise. Over time the resulting injury to hearing can be similar that seen in previous years caused by industrial noise.