Berlin – MP3 players, iPods and other electronic devices are popular gifts which young people love. But Professor Benedikt Folz takes a critical view.”Naturally I wouldn’t want to forbid anyone from having fun with an iPod or some other new equipment,” the chief physician at the ear, nose and throat clinic of the medical health care centre MZG in Bad Lippspringe, Germany says.”But I do advise regularly taking a break so that the ear can recover.”One can even turn the sound up high, he notes. But then the ears should also be given some time off.”There is recreation-time noise all around,” Folz says. it starts with the MP3 player and ends with the droning buzz of vuvuzelas at the football World Cup.”Everywhere today there is something for the ears – in the car it’s the CD player, at home it’s the Dolby-Surround-System of the TV set, and in the cinema, even the seats are vibrating because the volume is so loud. I now think recreational noise has in the meantime become more threatening than on-the-job noise.”A pipe-fitter, for example, can protect himself well against the noise because it has become known that a permanent volume level of over 85 decibels is damaging.”But in people’s free time there are scarcely any limits. the volume can be well above 100 decibels because the MP3 player is connected directly to your ear,” the physician notes.Young people in particular are especially in danger of suffering hearing impairment at an early age.”In the worst cases, they are already plugging their MP3 players in early in the morning, then at noon putting on their headphones to play games at the computer, before then watching TV with the sound turned up loud and then, at night, heading to the discotheque,” Folz says.In all, they are on the receiving end of more than 8 hours of noise which can damage their hearing. Those who do this permanently are in danger of suffering the level of hearing impairment found in the elderly.
Take a break from electronic gadgets for your ears’ sake
