More than one billion young people risk damaging their hearing through the overuse of smartphones and other audio devices, the UN warned Tuesday, proposing new safety standards for safe volume levels.
Currently, about five percent of the global population, or some 466 million people, including 34 million children, suffer from disabling hearing loss. Young people are particularly likely to develop such risky listening habits. Around half of those between the ages of 12 and 35, or 1.1 billion people, are at risk due to "long and severe exposure to loud sounds, including music they listen to through personal audio devices," the UN health agency said.
In a bid to safeguard hearing, the World Health Organization and International Telecommunications Union issued an international standard for the manufacture and use of audio devices. WHO considers a volume above 85 decibels for eight hours or 100 decibels for 15 minutes as unsafe. The safe listening devices and systems standard calls for a "sound allowance" software to be included in all audio devices, to track the volume level and duration of a user's exposure to sound, and to evaluate the risk posed to their hearing. This system could alert a user if they have dangerous listening habits.
WHO is also calling for parental as well as automatic volume controls on audio devices to prevent dangerous use. While some smartphones and other audio devices already offer some of these features, the UN would like to see a uniform standard used to help protect against disabling hearing loss.
"Think of it like driving on a highway, but without a speedometer in your car or a speed limit," Shelly Chadha of the WHO told reporters in Geneva. "What we've proposed is that your smartphones come fitted with a speedometer, with a measurement system which tells you how much sound you're getting and tells you if you are going over the limit".
