Cranking The Volume On Your Ipod Or Mp3 Player Can Damage Hearing
Kids have always loved listening to their favorite music, and the louder the better much to their parents dismay. In the 1980s, the portable tape recorder with headphones which came to be known as the Walkman enabled teenagers to listen to their music as loud as they wanted, anywhere they wanted, without disturbing anyone around them.
But the more modern rendition of the Walkman portable MP3 Players and iPods pose a major threat to our childrens hearing health, and to ours.
The problem is a combination of the technology of portable digital devices that creates a non-buffered crystal clear sound, and the type of headphones typically used with them, which do not have a buffer either. In December 2005, Dean Garstecki, an audiologist and professor at Northwestern University reported that more and more young people were being diagnosed with the types of hearing loss typically found in older adults. He attributed this trend to the earbud type headphones that usually accompany iPod and MP3 Players.
With the earbud headphones, the sound frequencies are not buffered as they are with the...