Do you have headphones in?
For most of us, listening to music is an important part of our daily routine, but according to a new report from the World Health Organisation (WHO), we should cut listening to music to just an hour per day.
The report argues: “While it is important to keep the volume down, limiting the use of personal audio devices to less than one hour a day would do much to reduce noise exposure.”
WHO says that 1.1 billion teenagers and young adults are at risk of developing hearing loss due to listening to unsafe levels of music on personal audio devices.
Listening to loud music on your phone isn’t the only thing that will damage your hearing.
The WHO’s report, called Make Listening Safe, says that audio players, live concerts and nightclubs all pose as “serious threat”, while figures show 43 million people aged between 12-35 have some form of hearing loss.
The WHO goes on to list ‘safe listening times’ for a variety of noise levels, listed below.
85 dB – the level of noise inside a car – 8 hours
90 dB – lawn mower – 2 hours 30 minutes
95 dB – an average motorcycle – 47 minutes
100 dB – car horn or underground train – 15 minutes
105 dB – mp3 player at maximum volume – 4 minutes
115 dB – loud rock concert – 28 seconds
120 dB – vuvuzela or sirens – 9 seconds
You can find out more about the WHO’s Make Listening Safe over here.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
