Mom Is Right: Turn Down the Music

We’ve all had the experience of Mom telling us to “turn down the music!”  Regardless if it was last week’s roadtrip with our earphone-geared kids or 30 years ago when we cranked up our record players so loud mom declared it shook the house.  The bottom line: Mom was right! You can damage your ears!

How can Listening Devices be dangerous to my hearing?

• Personal listening devices such as ipods, cell phones, ipads and other tablets can produce sound volume levels of up to 115 decibels (dB)–the same volume level as a loud rock concert.  Sounds louder than 85 dB can be damaging to your hearing.  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) governs noise exposure in the workplace.  NIOSH requires hearing protection to be worn at levels above 85 dB for workers’ safety, and limits exposure to sounds at 85 dB to 8 hours during a work day.  As sound levels increase, levels of allowed exposure decrease.  NIOSH would allow exposure to 100 dB sounds for no more than 15 minutes during the work day.
• Many modern mp3 players and cellphones are packaged and sold with earbuds.  Earbuds are meant to be worn directly in the ear, and can boost the volume of the sounds by 6 to 9 decibels compared to traditional over-the-ear muff style earphones.
• Today’s mp3 players have enough memory to hold hundreds or thousands of songs, and enough battery life to play for up to 40 hours straight when fully charged.

What’s the 60/60 Rule?

According to Dr. Brian Fligor, Director of Audiology at Children’s Hospital Boston, it is recommended everyone follow what researchers call the “60 percent / 60 minute rule.”  He suggests using listening devices at no more than 60% of the maximum volume for no more than 60 minutes (1 hour) per day.  These recommendations apply not only to children and teenagers, but to music lovers of all ages.

What is the best way to protect my hearing?

• Some personal listening devices, such as ipods and iphones made by Apple, can be set to have the volume limited. (Under settings, chose “music” and then “volume limit”.)  It is important to note, however, that this volume limit only applies to sound from the music app, and not to youtube videos or sounds that come from other applications.
• Chose the traditional, over-the-ear muffstyle headphones over earbuds.
• Another listening option is to use noise cancelling headphones, which eliminate background noise so listeners aren’t tempted to raise the volume on their music.

What should I do now?

• If you are listening to your music and someone can hear the music from your earphones, you are damaging your hearing.  Turn it down.
• Get your hearing checked!  If you’ve been exposed to loud levels of noise, either through work or through recreational listening, you should have your hearing evaluated once a year.