I am in BIG TIME trouble!
 
http://www.ibtimes.com/hearing-loss-report-limit-music-listening-hour-day-says-world-health-organization-1831286
 
 

And if it's too loud for The Who... :P
 
I guess I'm safe, I never use earbuds and mostly only use headphones for tracking. :)

What?

I'm amazed my ears work as well as they do considering the battering they've had. I've spend most of my life since my teens listening to music on headphones (sometimes a lot louder than I should), attended many ear splitting concerts which left me half deaf for most of the next day, played in thrash metal bands, and did a lot of raving in the 90's often at events with unbelievably loud PA's (and danced the night away quite happily right next to giant speakers). I've also spent between a quarter and a third of my life here in New York, being pounded by sirens and subways and construction noise on a daily basis. 
 
I think I can hear up to about 16kHz which is normal for my age, and I have no trouble hearing day to day stuff. However one thing I do regret with regard to not looking after my ears is the tinnitus I have, which is of a very high pitch (like escaping gas) and is very noticeable when it's quiet. It doesn't really bother me at all on the most part, I did have a couple of freakouts about it a few years ago but since then it's just melted into the background. 
 
I still wear headphones a lot, and often find myself listening at volumes which I shouldn't, but I'm working on that. One thing I do as protection (and I've said this before) is take a magnesium supplement, especially before doing anything on headphones. Magnesium has been shown to be quite effective in protecting the ears from noise induced hearing damage and I believe the military has looked into using it to reduce the damage done in noisy training exercises (explosions, gunfire etc) with some success. Well worth taking a nice dose of a high quality magnesium. Apparently resveratrol has also shown promise in protecting the ears from noise damage, although it's a lot more expensive than magnesium. Vitamin D is apparently also very important and can protect or even improve hearing. 
 
I did read recently that earbuds are a lot worse than regular cans, and I can believe that. 

{yawn} They've been getting their knickers (or boxers) in a knot over this hearing loss issue for decades, but oh well, life goes on as usual.
 
Here, feast your ears on this,
 

 
Oh yeah baby!
 
 
Or how about a family vacation? Ah yes, so peaceful and quite at the beach, until this happens....
 

 
 
 

I hear my tinnitus quite well. The ringing is loud and also a high frequency, I think I am OK!
 

SongCraft
{yawn} They've been getting their knickers (or boxers) in a knot over this hearing loss issue for decades, but oh well, life goes on as usual.
 
Here, feast your ears on this,
 

 
Oh yeah baby!
 
 
Or how about a family vacation? Ah yes, so peaceful and quite at the beach, until this happens....
 

 
 
 

What a dumb place to go to the beach, it might be photoshopped but it looks real with the fence and everything. Wow...
 
 

http://www.who.int/pbd/deafness/activities/MLS_Brochure_English_lowres_for_web.pdf?ua=1
 
The impression seems to be getting around that WHO is particularly citing dangers from in ear transducers or headphones, and there is some room for misinterpretation in their public statements, but it is pretty clear that it is the sound energy and duration that is important, not the route of exposure. In fact they make a specific recommendation that persons listening to music on an aircraft use noise cancelling headphones to neutralize some of the ambient noise. Adding the music sound to the background sound compounds the problem, and also requires the listener to increase the volume of the music to overcome the masking effect of the ambient noise. So an occlusive earphone would be effective in that setting as well.
 
Limiting listening to one hour a day is just a lame recommendation. Like most public health recommendations it treats everyone in the hope of helping a subset of those who comply. They have found that a substantial proportion of young users of "personal audio devices" set spl's delivered to the ear in the 75-105 dB range and the devices can deliver as high as 135 dB. By decreasing the time at high exposure the total damage can be minimized. If someone has his headphones (or ambulance siren or jackhammer) delivering 135 db to his ears he needs to limit the time he is exposed.
 
Obviously the best solution is to hear as little volume as practical over the time necessary, rather than to limit the time to what most serious music lovers would find unreasonable. But measuring the sound pressure level inside the ear canal is something the average teenage listener does not have the resources to do. And judging the intensity "by ear" is very unreliable. As noted masking from ambient noise will make the music actually sound less loud, fatigue and temporary sound damage to the sensory cells in the ear makes them less sensitive, and permanent sound damage (usually not noticed until advanced) requires a constant increase in the sound level for the music to sound "normally" loud.
 
So if you can get all the listeners (including the ones using safe for many hours levels) to decrease the time they are listening, you can help prevent those who are getting too much sound exposure from damaging their hearing further. An even better recommendation that they make is to get manufacturer's of MP3 players etc. to limit the output of their devices to levels that do not produce permanent damage in a short time. Kids who couldn't hear the music at a safe level might be tempeted to get their hearing checked.

jbow

What a dumb place to go to the beach, it might be photoshopped but it looks real with the fence and everything. Wow...
 

About:  Maho Beach
 
 
 

I know that when I'm working on headphones, I instinctively tear them off every 20 minutes or so for a 10 minute break. I don't know whether that's a natural ear protection instinct kicking in or because I feel kind of "shut in" with cans on.