Tube damages your health

MP3 users hearing damage warning

This report has been on the BBC website and in the evening standard. Well I have to say it makes me laugh, because for one it is like ‘No Shit Sherlock’ and then they come up with daft things like, that people have their headphones too loud and that is the reason for damaging the hearing. If you look at the list below, and tell me that those living in London don't suffer an assault on their ears each day, not of their doing.

They even list decibel levels as such

20dB – Quiet room at night
70dB – a city street
90dB – Tube Train
90-105dB - Nightclub
100dB - iPod at full volume
110dB - pneumatic drill
125dB - rock concert
130dB - aeroplane taking off
140dB - threshold of pain

Then they say that ‘80 decibels as the level at which hearing is threatened - 20 less than a pneumatic drill.’ Well if you look at the list, the tube train is higher than the level when hearing is threatened, and given most people spend anywhere between 1hr to 3/4 hours a day on the tube, for those who commute, what that does say, when they are saying that iPods are damaging the hearing with use of an hour a day. What it says is that the tube is damaging peoples hearing and unless something is done, nothing will ever change.

This research makes me laugh because they focus on things like iPods, etc which people use to enjoy music and then saying people turn them up to try and drown out the unpleasant noise from traffic and on the Tube. Well when you look at the list are you bloody surprised. Maybe for those who live in London, this will point out just how bad the Tube is for your health, and that doesn’t include all the dust that is going into your lungs and chest when you are down there.

Suggesting people listen responsibly, is all well and good, but when like me you spend 2 hours a day travelling a tube that is supposedly threatening what little hearing I have left, and I don’t listen to a walkman, that says the tube needs to be sorted out.