EU Recommends Noise Limits On MP3 Players 360
A story at the BBC notes increasing pressure from the European Commission to set standards that would limit the maximum volume on portable MP3 players. Their reasoning is that it would protect users from damaging their hearing after listening to loud music for extended periods. Quoting:
"This follows a report last year warning that up to 10m people in the EU face permanent hearing loss from listening to loud music for prolonged periods. EU experts want the default maximum setting to be 85 decibels, according to BBC One's Politics Show. Users would be able to override this setting to reach a top limit of 100 decibels. ... Some personal players examined in testing facilities have been found to reach 120 decibels, the equivalent of a jet taking off, and no safety default level currently applies, although manufacturers are obliged to print information about risks in the instruction manuals. Modern personal players are seen as more dangerous than stationary players or old-fashioned cassette or disk players because they can store hours of music and are often listened to while in traffic with the volume very high to drown out outside noise."
Rock On, Dudes! (Score:2, Interesting)
On the other hand, I'm one of those people that tend to listen at full volume while walking. I had a friend one time tell me that he heard my earbuds from all the way across the street (seriously). My chronic tinnitus aside, if you limit my decibelage, I will find a way to crank it. Besides, what is the use of limiting the decibels if you can just override it anyway?
Forget disabled users... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have very bad hearing, have done since I was a kid (even had surgery to correct it). I listen to music roughly 10-15% louder than most of my peers. In a noisy room louder still. If they limit volume on my MP3 player will I have to hack it in order to listen to it at a reasonable volume for me?
How about limits on boom cars? (Score:3, Interesting)
If a boom car is loud from three blocks away, imagine how loud it is in the car.
A few days ago, I observed one of these insanely loud boom cars with a 3 year child strapped into the back. Too bad for that kid's hearing.
Wish they would regulate TV channels first. (Score:5, Interesting)
My music usually doesn't surprise me with sudden shifts of maximum volume. But every time a program switches to commercial on TV, the max volume is a shit load louder and with more commercials than ever before that means fiddling with the remote every other minute. It wasn't always this way and is way annoying.
I travel on the Tube to work (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a pity the EU doesn't apply noise limits to public transport. The Victoria Line of the London Underground regularly hits 100dB. Travel on it to work every day for five years and your hearing will be permanently fucked up by it. Like mine.
Already like that in France (Score:1, Interesting)
Now I know a lot of people dislike it when the governement thinks it knows what's best for us more than ourselves (and I usually agree), but before blaming them remember that 1 - 85/100 decibels is pretty loud given a decent set of plugs and 2 - this limit pretty much already exists, they're just trying to set an EU-wide law to uniform it.
Re:Wrong approach entirely (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally, I like my shure e2c, sure they're expensive, but you don't need to spend a lot of money, just get a earbud that provides for a proper seal in the ear. I can have my volume turned down pretty much all the way on the bus, and I can still barely hear the noise from the rest of the bus.
Re:Rock On, Dudes! (Score:3, Interesting)
And that's just fine. People are and still will be allowed to damage their hearing if they like. The idea isn't to "control" people, even if some reflexively seem to think that every time a government tries to protect it's citizens. The idea is to prevent that the market is filled with devices that injure people without them realizing it (typically teenagers). It is a pragmatic trade-off, reducing hearing loss at large while making it somewhat more cumbersome to produce an arbitrary sound volume.
Personally, I wouldn't mind having an MP3 player that warn me with a "please override" message before I accidentally expose myself to unhealthy sound levels. When the ambient noise is loud, it's often very hard to notice how high you've cranked the volume.
On the other hand, I can see practical problems with this, as it is quite common to replace the stock earbuds.
Re:But how to do that? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's common to see musicians playing with plugs stuck in their ears so they don't drive themselves stone deaf, while they obviously consider it perfectly OK for them to obliterate the hearing of customers frequenting the place.
I realise I'm probably a tedious old fart, but I've long been forced to recognise that my hearing is far from what it was when I was a teenager or even in my twenties, and I hold many of these crappy bands to blame.
Re:Better Headphones (Score:4, Interesting)
The reason I mentioned the ban on headphones while driving or riding a bike was because of the aforementioned incident where someone was killed by a train because they didn't hear it is because it happened 5 minutes from where I live.
Banning (and then fining) stupidity works as a form of user education, because stupid people get caught, then bitch and moan to everyone about how it's so *unfair" - while everyone else goes "don't you think it's pretty stupid what you did?" It also gives parents a fallback, instead of just having to say "because I told you to!" for things like "wear your bicycle helmet" and "put on your seatbelt."
It's the same for drunken driving. Here it's a criminal offense and can get you up to 10 years in jail; we heavily advertise this fact during holiday periods, so people at parties feel they have more support when they demand that a drunk guest hand over their keys.
Laws against stupidity aren't there toi help the stupid - they're too stupid - they're there for the rest of us. A ban on "too loud headsets" will help reduce the second-hand noise everyone else hears while some idiot is blasting their brains out.
No change, please. (Score:2, Interesting)
although manufacturers are obliged to print information about risks in the instruction manuals
Then that will do.
Smoking is estimated to kill thousands of people, yet cigarette makers don't face restrictions on how many cigarettes they can put in the box, or how much tobacco goes into the product. They get away with being able to put a warning sticker on the box.
Re:But how to do that? (Score:2, Interesting)
It's about time somebody does something and protects this generation. The problem is both in mp3-players and the likes which everybody seems to listen to all of the time and in noisy environments, so they have to put up all the way to the maximum volume and never turn down, and in the live concerts, I remember reading that a live concert can reach 140 dB, and clubs. This is a case where government really should do something and all arguments that people should be free to damage their hearing is really nonsense if you ask me. They simply don't know until it's really too late.
Sadly, hearing loss never means that you don't hear anything, on the contrary. There was a case of a man of 30 here in Belgium this summer who committed suicide because even if he whispered something it hurt his hearing (you can read his story here: http://mog.com/Jo/blog/1401025 [mog.com]). Look here for how damaging hearing loss can be to once life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Townshend [wikipedia.org]