According to a report commissioned by the EU last year, up to 10 million European citizens listen to music at damagingly loud levels for long periods of time, and could suffer from future hearing problems. Now the union's executive branch, the European Commission, has mandated new safety standards on all portable music players sold in Europe.
Helen Kearns, a European Commission spokeswoman, said that while these new standards would not be legally binding, they would become "de facto industry standards" in 2010. All portable audio devices -- iPods, smart phones and other MP3 players – would have a default top volume of 85 decibels. That's roughly equivalent to the sound of city traffic while you're inside a car.
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The EU is acting to limit damage caused by prolonged exposure to loud noise.
Consumers would be able to override the default settings, but the maximum volume permitted would be 100 decibels, which is like a jet taking off 300 yards away. Doctors recommend that such noise levels should be limited to two hours a day to avoid hearing damage.
Med Dyer, director of engineering at San Diego-based MWM Acoustics, says some personal audio players on the market can play music at up to 120 decibels when combined with certain "highly sensitive" headphones. That's like listening to a loud thunderclap -- except that the thunder sounds with every beat of a song.
Dyer points out that limiting the players on their own is not enough: "The problem with limiting the player's volume is that it only works when they are listening with the headphones that have been shipped with them." His company is working on a new product that will allow headphones – not players – to limit the "sound pressure levels" that hit your eardrums.
Such limits would help the many people who don't have a clue about potential problems. "Time and again young people say to us, 'I didn't know I was damaging my hearing,' " says Emma Harrison of London's Royal National Institute for Deaf People, "and 'How loud is too loud?' But it's sound pressure over time, and that's very difficult to explain to 16-year-olds who just want to enjoy their music."
Some consider the proposed regulations, which are loosely modeled on an earlier French initiative, as a classic case of unnecessary government interference. Simon Richard, director of the U.K.-based Freedom Association, called this kind of European standardization the "thin end of the wedge."
"To provide the individuals with the best possible advice – that is a duty of government organizations," he said. "But I think the ultimate decision has to be to up to the individual consumer."
Harrison counters such concerns by pointing out that the technological changes under consideration would let users "override the default limiter, so you have every chance to damage your hearing if you want to."
The EU estimates that between 50 million and 100 million people listen to portable audio devices each day across the continent, while the World Health Organization says that the experience of excessively loud noise is the greatest preventable reason for the loss of hearing. Many aging rock stars, such as Dire Straits bassist John Illsley, have gone public about serious hearing loss caused by years of thumpingly loud music. The EU hopes its measures might help limit such complaints in the future.
