Listen up, iPod users

THE buds are popping up everywhere: on trains, buses and planes, on treadmills and StairMasters, on any busy urban sidewalk or rural path. But these buds, earbuds used to listen to iPods, could be sowing the seeds of irreversible hearing loss.

Dr. Dean Garstecki, chairman of communication science and disorders at Northwestern University, warns that the earbuds favored by iPod users could be more dangerous than the earmuff-style listening devices. “By its very construction, the earbud increases signal intensity over a muff,” he says. “It’s worn further down the ear canal, closer to the cochlea.”

Complicating the problem is that the earbuds aren’t fitted so tightly that they drown out surrounding noises. “So they crank it up more,” Garstecki says. And because the iPod can hold 12 hours or more of music, some people keep themselves plugged in all day, never letting their ears rest.

Everyone has unique sensitivities to sound, but damage could be worse for people who like loud rock or rap than for those mellowing out. A rule of thumb to avoid hearing damage is to listen at no more than 60% volume (as measured by graph lines on the devices) for no more than an hour a day. “If they listen at less than 60% volume,” he says, “they can wear it longer.”