Digital players raise deafness fears

Hearing damage caused by portable digital music players has been singled out as a future epidemic by audiologists.

A Consumer magazine report says the combination of earbud headphones, long play times and maximum volumes of more than 100 decibels meant players could cause gradual but permanent hearing damage. The ultra-portable music players were not necessarily louder than older discmans and walkmans, but due to improved technology listeners could pump music into their ears for hours without running out of power.

Sargunam Sivaraj, head of Wellington Hospital's audiology services, said his department was already finding youngsters with high-frequency loss.

Popular players were able to play about 15 hours of music without needing a recharge and young people's ears were under attack by noise at close quarters for unprecedentedly long periods, the researcher said.

"The biggest problem with noise exposure is it is slow and insidious - it doesn't happen suddenly."

One American audiologist has found that with some models of player equipped with earbud headphones, listeners could use their players for just 30 minutes a day at a moderate volume without endangering their hearing.

Consumer said hearing was threatened by noise above 80 decibels, or the level of loud city traffic.

Audiologists were particularly concerned by personal music players able to exceed 100 decibels - the same amount of noise made by a chainsaw.

There are no decibel limits in New Zealand.

The Consumer report said about 400,000 New Zealanders had some form of hearing loss.

- NZPA