How Safe Are Headphones?

Many buyers are asking the question, "How safe are in ear headphones?". It is an important question seeing as consumers will be using them every day and will be susceptible to possible irritation of poor fitting ear buds and the sensitivity of loud noises. It is a genuine concern for parents that their children have headphones that have volume control, comfortable fitting and strong construction; yet what about the rest of us? Do we need to be careful about what earphones we use? What are the chances of causing ear damage using bad earphones? Within this article I shall try and explore those questions and evaluate whether over exposure can be detrimental to your hearing.

What are the chances of causing ear damage?

The chances of damaging your ear drums obviously depends to the amount of time being exposed to loud noises, yet there are a number of measures which can be taken to ensure that your eardrums are safe from ear pollution.

In the article 'Researchers Recommend Safe Listening Levels for iPod' audiologists Portnuff and Fligor estimate that a person can safely use an MP3 player for up to 4.6 hours at 70 percent volume without causing too much damage to the ear or causing any detrimental hearing loss. Yet, if you were to listen to the music at full volume for more than 5 minutes using the earphones supplied in the box, the audiologists say, could increase the hearing loss in a typical person.

Often it is the case that a person will increase the volume of their music going through their stock headphones (i.e. the headphones or earphones that came with the MP3 or smartphones) due to external noise and this could be a factor to why the volume could be turned up to max and a harm to your ear drums. Yet you don't have to stick with the stock headphones and it is worth considering earphones or headphones that are tested to be safe. There are also features to look out for when purchasing to help make the decision making process as simple as possible.

What can I do to ensure my headphones are as safe as possible?

Volume Control

We all have volume control features on our MP3's or Smartphone's yet many headphones come with the additional feature of having volume control settings. This is particularly useful when shopping for kids' headphones as parents need to be sure that the kids don't have their music too loud. It is also useful to the runners amongst as the need to be fully aware of the surroundings when approaching main roads and busy areas, so by having an easy functioning volume control setting on the headphones will not only be good for your ears, but your general awareness too.

Fit

Ensure that you have a comfortable fit. Often people worry that earphones are 'air tight' and could damage the ear due to excessive sound and vibration of the ear drum. This is not necessary the case as you are more likely to damage the ear drum by having music on full volume due to not fitting rather than having tighter ear canal earphones that are noise isolating and are louder with 70 percent volume, for example. There are many types of headphones and earphones available. On ear, in ear, over ear, ear hook, noise isolating and noise reducing earphones are all moulds you would be familiar with yet it is all trial and error as ear canal sizes differentiates for the individual. What you find comfortable, may irritate someone else. Search the net for noise isolating earphones and try out a number of ear buds.

Noise Isolation

The purpose of noise-isolating headphones is to drown out external noises such as other people talking, or any external noises that may be heard whilst wearing headphones. A lot of earphones are advertised as being 'noise isolating' earphones. Yet what does this mean? Noise isolating earphones are generally air tight earphones, otherwise known as ear canal earphones. There are concerns that air tight earphones could damage the ear drum, but according to audiologists this is not the case. The sound loudness is the main factor for hearing loss not compactness. The ear drum is supposed to vibrate after all.

The Individual

At the end of the day it could come down to the individual. Some people have tougher ears than others according to Portnuff. He went on to say in his article 'Researchers Recommend Safe Listening Levels for iPod' that "it is important to note,... that not everyone shares the same risk of hearing loss". He believes those that have "tougher" ears are less susceptible to ear damage than those with "tender" ears.

"Hearing loss occurs slowly and is often not noticed until it is quite extensive, so early prevention is the key".

Conclusion

To sum up, well fitting in ear (ear canal) earphones or over ear headphones with noise isolation are the safest bet. The standard MP3 headphones that come within the box don't fit as well and have smaller drivers anyway. They were not made in the best interest of the user, just a cheaper solution for the MP3 company.

Portnuff summed it up when stating that "hearing loss occurs slowly and is often not noticed until it is quite extensive, so early prevention is the key". Over exposure to loud music using cheap stock earphones could cause loss of hearing so surely investing in noise reducing earphones is important for any audiophile.

Even the most famous musicians and composers have admitted that overuse of their headphones has caused permanent damage to their ears, yet they were exposed to loud noise through their headphones for elongated periods of time. For us that use headphones down the gym or to get in our own little world then it should be remembered that ear canal earphones are best yet not on maximum volume.

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