Avo-Rein Tereping - Are Headphones Dangerous to Your Health?
Seeing someone jog or walk on the street or in the forest while wearing headphones has become a common sight. Our love of music has its dark side, as Avo-Rein Tereping, lecturer of work and engineering psychology at the TU School of Natural Sciences explains.
Seeing someone jog or walk on the street or in the forest while wearing headphones has become a common sight. Our love of music has its dark side, as Avo-Rein Tereping, lecturer of work and engineering psychology at the TU School of Natural Sciences explains.
The developments in sound equipment enable us to reproduce high-quality sounds with an ultra light MP3 player and a set of headphones. In addition, the volume can be turned up so high you will feel like you are at a live concert, a night club or some other venue with loud music.
Unfortunately, there are many perils associated with our habit of listening to loud music using our headphones. For instance, we can be run over by trains, as we cannot hear one approaching at a crossing. You have probably seen the posters warning us to remove our headphones on city streets.
There is another danger waiting for the avid music fan. The ear is an exquisitely delicate instrument. Many researchers have found that the acuity of young people – the sensitivity of the ear to higher frequencies – has gradually fallen since 1985. This is directly correlated to the usage of headphones, as listening to loud noises over long time periods wears out the ear, causing permanent hearing impairment.
Defend your auditory organs from an overload! Do not burden your ears with long periods of loud music coming from headphones. Otherwise, your hearing at 25 will be as bad as it is for 60-year-olds.