Portable media device is so common nowadays and while it can provide multimedia entertainment especially for those that always on the move, it also poses certain hearing impaired threat to those that being exposed for long hour of music listening in loud audio level condition. In an attempt to control such situation, EU (European Union) has proposed a new legislation to regulate the maximum audio level that all the portable media players cannot exceed before they are allowed to be sold in Europe market.
The portable media devices that will be affected under this new regulation include Apple iPod and other branded MP3 players. The new regulation specifies the default maximum threshold to be set at 80 decibels which is considered safe level for average users. It may be hard to imagine how loud 80 decibel is, but in layman term, it is almost equivalent to heavy city traffic condition. Based on survey report, there are total of 50 to 100 million of people listening to music daily and if they are continuously exposed to loud audio for five year, chances to get permanent hearing damage is pretty high.
Although the maximum audio level has been defined and set by default, it doesn’t stop consumers from altering the level and so it is still not a hard rule for now. Nevertheless, hopefully it can create awareness to public to properly use the portable media player without creating unwanted health risk in normal life.
