iPods can make you go deaf

This is the headline in the London Evening Standard today. Well I have to say when I first read it, I laughed, because simply it seems so funny and ludicrous to suggest such a thing. The more I read of it, the more I understood, what they were saying was that iPods, personal stereos, etc can make you deaf because people have them so loud when they are listening to them, specifically those who listen to them on trains and the tube.

Well if the headline was more accurate, it would have been that people have to turn up their iPods, personal stereos, etc so loud to actually hear them on the train and the tube. That is the issue. The research investigated the damage caused by the players rather than the more important issue which is, the sheer noise damage caused by the tube and the train. So instead of making the underground and the train operators come within the law and not damage people’s ears because of the level of the noise, they focus on the part that has little or no part in it. I am betting if they did research into those who travel the tube and the train each and every day for about a minimum of an hour, they would find that these people are damaging their ears, and why, because the noise generated on the tube and trains is far above what is acceptable.

It is lovely that they can manage to turn the focus on companies like Apple, Sony, Phillips, Aiwa, etc, instead of the companies that are actually causing this problem in the first place.