An estimated 50-100 million people listen to personal music players daily within the EU. Several of these players have the possibility to play the music at high volume. A lot of people use the high volume, for example in order to shut out background noise from the streets or public transportation. Listening to too high volume can however result in permanent hearing damage and as many as 10 million people are running this risk.
The European Commission has therefore sent a mandate to CENELC (the EU standardisation body) requiring new technical safety standards to be drawn up. These standards will apply to all personal music players and mobile phones with a music playing function. The safe sound volume will be the default setting on the player, but there may be possibilities for the user to use a higher volume if he or she is warned about the risks before the setting is changed.
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