• Ars Technica, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 12 PM

Bad news for anyone tired of listening to others people's music blasting through a distant set of earbuds on the subway each morning: A new study from the European Commission states that MP3 players pose a minimal risk to hearing loss. So turn that volume up! Still, the report was not without warning.

After declaring that earphones "produce minimal risk of hearing impairment for the majority of PMP [personal music player] users," the study said there was an exception for those who listened at the highest volumes. It found that 5-10% of PMP users "are at high risk of developing permanent hearing loss after five or more years of exposure. Those are the individuals listening to music over one hour a day at high volume control setting [sic]."

And that's not the only risk to high volume noise exposure. For children, it can lead to delayed reading abilities and problems at school, even higher blood pressure. The study also found that while boring, repetitive tasks can be performed better with a little noise distraction, complex tasks--like operating an iPhone, perhaps--suffer.

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