WHO warns vs excessive use of smartphones, audio devices
GENEVA: More than 1 billion young people risk damaging their hearing through excessive use of smartphones and other audio devices, the UN warned Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila), proposing new safety standards for safe volume levels.
In a bid to safeguard hearing, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Telecommunications Union issued a non-binding international standard for the manufacture and use of audio devices.
Young people are particularly prone to risky listening habits.
About half of those between the ages of 12 and 35, or 1.1 billion people, are at risk due to “prolonged and excessive
at risk due to “prolonged and excessive exposure to loud sounds, including music they listen to through personal audio devices,” the UN health agency said.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out that the world has “the technological know-how to prevent hearing loss.”
“It should not be the case that so many young people continue to damage their hearing while listening to music,” he said.
Young people, he said, “must understand that once they lose their hearing, it won’t come back.”
About 5 percent of the global population, or some 466 million people, including 34 million children, suffer from disabling hearing loss.
WHO said it remained unclear how many of them had damaged their hearing through dangerous use of audio devices.
It insisted though that the new standard developed with ITU would go a long way to “safeguard these young consumers as they go about doing something they enjoy.”
WHO considers a volume above 85 decibels for 8 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.