I’d bet most of us have heard music leaking, sometimes very loudly, from the headphones of someone near us on a plane, in the gym, or at the mall. Every time that happens, I wince (not because I don’t like their selections, though that’s often the case) thinking about the potential damage to that person’s hearing. When it’s a kid or teenager blithely blasting their tunes, it’s especially disturbing.
Our Health blog
recently underscored the damage that can result from loud music, noting that headphones can generate almost as much noise as a jet engine. In another post, our health experts offered three steps that can protect against hearing damage—don’t crank up the volume too high, don’t listen too long, and use a player’s volume limiter, especially for kids.
I was surprised and impressed to find one headphone maker, Monster, hammering home that same message very forcefully with the slogan, “Please listen responsibly”
on a Web page for Monster Beats by Dr. Dre. The page offers advice on protecting your hearing (such as, turning the volume down before you put the headphones on, and turning it up gradually until it’s at a comfortable level). It also cautions against wearing headphones while driving or in potentially dangerous settings such as crossing a busy street. It even mentions limiting the use of headphones, especially at high volumes.
Kudos to the company, which is showing real responsibility in offering this type of information. Monster also provides some useful links, including one to the Deafness Research Foundation, which has a great piece on music players and hearing loss.
If you or your kids tend to blast music, I'd strongly recommend reading the article to see what you can do to protect your hearing—and what problems you can expect if you don’t. Have you found this to be a problem, either for you or your family? If so, what are you doing about it?
