Sunday, May 1, 2011

Cranking The Volume On Your Ipod Or Mp3 Player Can Damage Hearing

By Bill Huiting


Kids have usually loved listening to their favorite music, and also the louder the better - much to their parents' dismay. Inside the 1980s, the portable tape recorder with headphones - which came to be known as the "Walkman" - enabled teenagers to listen to their music as loud as they wanted, anywhere they wanted, with out disturbing any person around them.

But the much more contemporary rendition of the Walkman - portable MP3 Players and iPods - pose a main threat to our children's hearing health, and to ours.

The problem is a mixture of the technologies of portable digital devices that creates a non-buffered crystal clear sound, and also the type of headphones usually employed with them, which do not have a buffer either. In December 2005, Dean Garstecki, an audiologist and professor at Northwestern University reported that more and more young people were being diagnosed with the types of hearing loss typically found in older adults. He attributed this trend to the "earbud" type headphones that usually accompany iPod and MP3 Players.

With the earbud headphones, the sound frequencies are not buffered as they're with the more conventional, ear cup-style headsets. Newsweek Magazine lately reported that researchers at the House Ear Institute found that listeners can unfortunately improve the volume of today's portable digital devices without the "signal distortion that occurs with traditional analog audio." The older-model headphones that had been well-liked just 15 to 20 years ago - that have ear cups outside of the ears - had that distortion when the volume was turned up, which functioned as a much-needed buffer to protect our hearing. Today's technologies doesn't supply that buffer - the earpiece is placed in the ear, not outside of it, and also the digital devices do not develop that distortion, regardless of how high the volume.

Furthermore, people often listen to these devices whilst they're on the go, and have a tendency to crank the volume in an attempt to drown outside noise, further posing a risk to our hearing. Utilizing the earbud style headphones throughout activities such as exercise, for example, puts the user at a greater risk. In the course of exercise, blood, which can act as a buffer, is diverted from the ears to other parts of the body - so our already vulnerable hearing is in even a lot more jeopardy.

Headwize reports that a study conducted on music listeners utilizing headphones revealed that although indoors with no background noise, the participants were comfy with their music at 69 decibels. Outdoors, where the background noise was recorded at 65 decibels, participants using their headphones turned the volume up to 82 decibels and as high as 95 decibels to drown out the surrounding noise. The Occupational Safety and Well being Administration guidelines limit exposure to noise at this level to no a lot more than four hours each and every day. The study concluded that the participants were at risk for hearing harm and suggested "avoiding continuous use of [portable stereos] in noisy conditions."

Northwestern University's Dean Garstecki offers a lot more certain guidelines: His 60 percent/60 minute rule - listen to MP3 Players and iPods for "about an hour a day and at levels below 60 percent of maximum volume." The issue is, most of the population making use of headphones - young music fans - listen to their music for significantly longer than one hour per day. But, you'll be able to aid reduce hearing loss, damage and issues while listening to your favorite music so long as you would like to - the secret is within the headphones.

Headphones such as the EX29 Extreme Isolation Noise Reduction Headphones assist block out external noise permitting you to hear the fine details of your music without blowing out your ear drums. The ear cup fits over the ear, and not in it, as well as the headphones are lightweight, do not need batteries and could be employed together with your MP3 Player or iPod. With 29 decibels of isolation from outside sound, the quiet headphones block outside noise and there is no have to crank the volume of your music.

Aging rock stars like the Who's Pete Townsend, who has some permanent hearing loss from years of exposure to loud music, and Mick Fleetwood, who has teamed up with Energizer batteries to promote hearing loss prevention, have brought public attention to the fact that several of us take our hearing for granted. But there's no need to turn off your music - just be smarter about how you listen to it. If you are making use of your MP3 Player or iPod when you're exercising, in a noisy environment or you just desire to hear the fine details of your music, ditch the earbud headphones and reach for a set of noise reduction ones instead. And you'll be enjoying your favorite music for a long time to come.




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