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Fuzzy Logic What’s that? EU wastes money on mp3 loud sound risk study
Fuzzy Logic What’s that? EU wastes money on mp3 loud sound risk study | What’s that? EU wastes money on mp3 loud sound risk study |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Tuesday, 14 October 2008 | |
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Now, I’m not against science, in fact, I’m all for it. But I’m against the European Commission wasting the time and money of an “independent scientific committee” to examine the issue of whether listening to music at a high volume could damage your hearing or not. I mean, don’t we already know? How much money was wasted on this? Next thing we’ll be told that a study shows smoking is bad, drinking coffee is bad and watching too much TV is bad, too. Perhaps wasting money on unnecessary scientific studies is also bad? Here’s what the European Commission did, bless ‘em. They asked their EU Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) whether loud music was potentially harmful given the proliferation of mp3 players, and the learned scientific opinion is that “5-10% of personal music player listeners risk permanent hearing loss, if they listen to a personal music player for more than one hour per day each week at high volume settings for at least 5 years.” And now that the European Commission has this information, they are going to “examine with Member States and stakeholders, possible measures that could be taken to better protect children and adolescents from exposure to noise from personal music players and other similar devices.” Perhaps the European Commission should instead examine with Member States and stakeholders, possible measures that could be taken to better protect us all from exposure to noise from greedy investment bankers and other similar financial types instead, given the credit crunch. But no, ears are more important than bank accounts, right? Well, of course they are, however... I didn't need a scientific study to inform me of this. After all, ears aren't as easily replaceable as fiat money. EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva, said, "I am concerned that so many young people, in particular, who are frequent users of personal music players and mobile phones at high acoustic levels, may be unknowingly damaging their hearing irrevocably. The scientific findings indicate a clear risk and we need to react rapidly.” Kuneva continued: “Most importantly we need to raise consumer awareness and put this information in the public domain. We need also to look again at the controls in place, in the light of this scientific advice, to make sure they are fully effective and keep pace with new technology." So, what are the current EU rules on noise levels in personal music players, what will the EU do about it, and what is the laughably simple and predictable advice for consumers? Please read on to page 2. |
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