EU Plans to Curb Volume of MP3 Players

European Union chiefs, if the likes of the Daily Mail are to be believed, spend most of their time trying to invent arcane laws like introducing straight bananas and banning Christmas. Now the EU is planning on tweaking the volume on your iPod, it is reported, thus limiting the ear-splitting level of that Santana solo or Jack White howl.

EU officials want the volume on MP3 players to be reduced to 85dB, a noise level similar to that of a busy street, the Guardian reported.

Recent data shows a rise in youth deafness, including a report last year which found as many as 10 million people in the EU risk permanent hearing loss from listening to their music too loud.

According to industry representative on BBC One's Politics Show, EU officials will begin a two-month consultation in January and a final agreement should be reached by the spring.

Dr Robin Yeoh, an audiology consultant at the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, told the BBC, "Once you damage the nerves of your inner ear that's permanent, there's no medication, no surgery, no therapies that's going to reverse it."

Tony Graziano, a rep for DigitalEurope, said the limit was too low. "Eighty-five dB would not be appropriate because noise coming from traffic, engines and so on would obliterate the sound."

Some European MP3-players are capable of a volume of more than 115dB, experts claim, which health advocates say workers should be subjected to for no more than 30 seconds at a time under current legislation, the Guardian reported.