Do you or your children enjoy listening to music on headphones? Many people prefer to enjoy music using headphones, especially in public places or while playing sports. However, the question arises: is it harmful to listen to loud music, and also to listen to it with only one earphone? And what type of headphones is considered the safest for hearing?
Myth: Listening to music with headphones is harmful to your hearing
The World Health Organization (WHO) draws attention to the global problem of hearing loss, noting that about 10% of the world’s population suffers from it. In the United States, about a third of hearing loss is caused by exposure to loud noises. The statistics are even more alarming in Europe, where more than 71 million people experience hearing problems.
Regular exposure to sound pressure levels greater than 100 dB can cause permanent hearing damage. It is believed that a comfortable level is a pressure from 70 to 90 dB. However, many headphone users exceed this level in an effort to isolate themselves from ambient noise.
Constantly listening to music at maximum volume through headphones can cause serious hearing damage.
Myth: The most dangerous headphones are in-ear headphones
A study conducted by Dr. Brian Flygaard of Harvard Medical School, published in the journal Ear and Hearing, found that the level of sound pressure experienced by the ear depends on the type of headphones. Smaller headphones typically produce higher sound pressure levels at the same volume. Flygor found that in-ear and in-ear headphones increased sound pressure levels by an average of 9 dB compared to on-ear or over-ear headphones.
This means that when using earbuds or earplugs to protect your hearing, you should turn down the volume as they produce a higher sound pressure.
Researchers from the Australian National Acoustic Laboratory in Sydney also concluded that in-ear headphones may result in increased volume due to the user’s ability to hear surrounding sounds. This may cause the volume level to increase, which will ultimately increase the risk of hearing damage.
Myth: Listening to music with only one earphone is harmful
Listening to music with only one earphone can put uneven strain on your ear canals. This can cause the ear to lose sensitivity to certain frequencies compared to the other ear if the practice becomes regular. There may also be difficulties with localizing sounds in space, but this requires listening to music in this way for a long time, usually more than 10 years.
However, occasionally listening to music or other audio with only one earphone, especially at low volume levels, is usually not dangerous.
Even in everyday life, we perceive sounds better from different directions with different ears – this is a natural process.
