The European Union commission wants a set limit on the maximum volume on all MP4 & MP3 players which are sold within the EU. This will apply to the iPod by Apple

The EU proposals come after a new report released within the last months that warned 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 sustained periods

Experts at the EU Commission are pushing for the default maximum volume to be at 85 decibels. However consumers would be able to bypass this default limit and increase the volume to a maximum threshold of 100 decibels.

In January 2010, an eight week consultation of all EU standardization groups started on these proposals to limit volume. The commission hopes that a final agreement could be reached within 12 weeks

Disturbing results were found at testing facilities where various MP3 / MP4 players were examined by researchers. A number of of the players had a maximum volume level of 120 decibels, that’s the same as an airplane taking off. This is the issue that the EU hopes to resolve, as at the moment no set safety default volume level applies.

However personal media player manufacturers are required to publish information about risks in their player instruction manuals. For all practical purposes though, users do not reads these, and it doesn’t prevent the consumer from increasing the volume to maximum. What’s more,a study 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.

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