Loud music is bad for you – WHO

Turn down the volume – before you lose your hearing.

This is the warning from the World Health Organisation (WHO). It claims that nearly 1.1-billion people aged 12-35 are at risk of hearing loss due to “prolonged and excessive exposure to loud sounds‚ including music they listen to on personal audio devices“.

The global health agency and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have now issued a new international standard for the manufacture and use of these devices‚ including smartphones and audio players‚ to make them safer for listening.

WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said young people had to understand that once they lost their hearing‚ it would not come back. “Given that we have 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.

Ghebreyesus said the new WHO-ITU standard‚ ahead of World Hearing Day on March 3‚ would “do much to better safeguard these young consumers as they go about doing something they enjoy”.

The standard was developed under WHO’s “Make Listening Safe” initiative to improve listening practices when young people are exposed to music and other sounds at noisy entertainment venues and as they listen to music on their personal audio devices.