MP3 owners risk becoming deaf

ONE in 10 30-year-olds will be unable to hear without the help of a hearing aid within the next decade as a direct result of listening to their MP3 players too loudly.

Figures released as part of Hearing Awareness Week have claimed that a generation of adults are risking premature deafness due to the high volumes at which they listen to music.

According to Hidden Hearing, the organisers of the campaign, more than half of MP3 player users listen to “dangerously high volumes” of music above 89 decibels for two hours a day, with some system’s reaching the same sound level as “a jet engine”.