Loud Music Players Can Damage Hearing, EU Warns

Noise from personal music players is a routine annoyance for travelers on buses, trains and planes.

But it also threatens permanent hearing loss for as many as 10 million Europeans who use them, according to a scientific study for the European Union that is due to be published Monday.

The report said that those who listened for only five hours a week at high-volume settings exposed themselves to more noise than permitted in the noisiest factory or workplace. Maximum volume on some devices can generate as much noise as an airplane taking off nearby.

The study — from a team of nine experts on the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks, an EU entity — also warns that young people do not realize the damage until years after it is done.

“Regularly listening to personal music players at high-volume settings when young,” the report said, “often has no immediate effect on hearing but is likely to result in hearing loss later in life.”

The report is the latest of several to warn that the “MP3″ generation of youths may be heading for hearing impairment in later life.

But older people may also be vulnerable. In the 27 EU countries, an estimated 50 million to 100 million people in an EU population of about 500 million may be listening to portable music players daily, the report said.

Users listening at high volumes for more than an hour a day each week risk permanent hearing loss after five years. This is equivalent to 5 percent to 10 percent of the listeners, which may be 2.5 million to 10 million people in the EU, the study concluded.

Such fears have already prompted litigation. In 2006 a man in Louisiana filed a class action against Apple, claiming the company had failed to take adequate steps to prevent hearing…