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If it’s not already annoying enough that television censors hold sway on what we can and cannot watch regarding content, it would appear that the European Union is pushing to add further restrictions to the sound levels of our mobile audio.
What\'s that buzzing in your ear? Image: jonboy mitchell/Flickr.
Citing concerns over potential damage to the hearing of those equipped with mobile MP3 music players, the European Commission has this week issued a revised set of volume standards to govern headphone sound output.
“The evidence is that particularly young people [up to 10 million], who are listening to music at high volumes sometimes for hours each week, have no idea they can be putting their hearing at risk,” explained European Union Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva during an official news conference.
The new audio standards arrive following a two-year consultation between the Commission and scientists, consumers, and the music industry, and have been introduced in the wake of an initial alarm first raised by a European Union scientific body in January of 2009.
According to Kuneva, the more tightly restricted volume levels are necessary because five to 10 percent of all MP3 users are at risk of permanent hearing loss from listening to their music at elevated levels.
While device manufacturers will be required to limit the default sound level of their players to 80 decibels and warn against elevated output, users craving ear-busting music will still be able to remove the volume cap if they so wish.
In terms of putting that 80-decibel limit into perspective, 80 decibels supposedly equates to the noise created on a busy street. Similarly, current player outputs of up to 125 decibels rival the sound levels produced by a jet airliner taking off.
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