iPods louder than a Who concert?
Pete Townshend has warned iPod users they may face hearing problems if they don't turn down the volume. Townshend, guitarist in the rock band The Who, said his hearing has been irreversibly damaged by years of using studio headphones and he must now take 36-hour breaks between recording sessions."Hearing loss is a terrible thing because it cannot be repaired," he said on his website. "If you use an iPod or anything like it, or your child uses one, you MAY be OK. ... But my intuition tells me there is terrible trouble ahead."

The Who were famous for their ear-splitting live performances, but Townshend, 60, said his problem was caused by using earphones in the recording studio. Referring to the increasingly popular practice of downloading music from the Internet, Townshend said: "The downside may be that on our computers - for privacy, for respect to family and co-workers, and for convenience - we used earphones at almost every stage of interaction with sound."

In another recent article by Helena Bryan (Mind, Body, Soul, Fall 2005) the headline COOL TECHNOLOGY MAY BE AGING YOUR EARS caught our eyes.

Hip young people everywhere likely have no idea that their oh-so-cool iPods and other MP3 players could be hurtling them toward middle age faster than driving the family mini-van. According to an expert in the area of hearing amplification at Indiana's Purdue University, the almost constant use of portable music devices and cellphones by university and college students may be behind a disturbing increase in hearing loss in young people. In a widely reported warning, Robert Novak, director of clinical education in audiology at Purdue, says the loss is comparable to that normally seen only in middle-aged adults.

A long-term Argentinean study ... pointed the finger at various sources of recreational noise, including live concerts, stereos, dance clubs, and portable music devices. ... The maximum decibel level on such devices is usually 105, and the listener's tendency is to turn the sound on high to mask other noises ... Noise levels aren't helped by the hordes of cellphone users who seem to feel they need to be heard at the other end.

If all that weren't bad enough, there was no mention at all in those articles of any harmful non-auditory effects, like sleep disturbance, raised blood pressure, decreased learning ability and more. Please let your representatives in all levels of government know about this matter.