Personal Music Players & Hearing Links

1. Some of the websites providing factual information on Personal Music Players & Hearing:

   • 1. EU publications related to noise exposure and prevention of hearing loss
   • 2. Other institutions addressing noise exposure and prevention of hearing loss
   • 3. Organizations addressing the health risks from personal music players

1. EU publications related to noise exposure and prevention of hearing loss

• The Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) of the European Commission published an Opinion on "Potential health risks of exposure to noise from personal music players and mobile phones including a music playing function" in 2008, that served as the source for this publication: ((Need final link to create hyperlink. At the moment, only Preliminary report available))
   http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_risk/committees/04_scenihr/docs/scenihr_o_018.pdf
• The European Directive 2003/10/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 February 2003 on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (noise) is available at:
   http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/
• The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has a section of its website dedicated to noise: http://osha.europa.eu/en/topics/noise 
• The Environment DG European Commission dedicates a section of its website to environmental noise policy and legislation at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/noise/ 
• European Research under Key Action 4 (Environment and Health) studies noise-related health effects and provides scientific evidence for establishing noise limits in the EU. More information available at:
  http://ec.europa.eu/research/quality-of-life/ka4/ka4_noise_en.html 

2. Other institutions addressing noise exposure and prevention of hearing loss

• The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) issued criteria for a recommended standard for occupational noise exposure. The criteria are available on:
  www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/noise/ 
• The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health administration (OSHA) presents Q&As relevant to noise and hearing conservation in the workplace at:
  www.osha.gov/SLTC/noisehearingconservation/index.html 
• The World Health Organization (WHO) proposes links to publications, factsheets, related sites and articles on the prevention of deafness and hearing impairment at:
  www.who.int/pbd/deafness/en 
  and the WHO Regional Office for Europe has a noise and health programme which reviews the evidence on main health effects of noise and identifies the needs of specific vulnerable groups at:
  www.euro.who.int/Noise  
• Canada’s National Occupational Health & Safety Resource (CCOHS) answers a series of questions on noise and auditory effects at:
  www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_agents/noise_auditory.html 
• The United Nations System-wide Earthwatch mechanism is a broad UN initiative to coordinate, harmonize and catalyze environmental observation activities among all UN agencies for integrated assessment purposes. It dedicates a section of its website to noise pollution at:
  http://earthwatch.unep.net/health/noisepollution.php 

3. Organizations addressing the health risks from personal music players

• Health Canada dedicates a section of its website to the risk of hearing loss from the use of personal music players at:
  www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ 
• The hear-it youth website aims at increasing young people’s awareness of hearing impairment and has one page dedicated to MP3 players at:
  http://youth.hear-it.org/page.dsp?page=3682 
• Deafness Research UK is a charity that gives some advice on how to prevent hearing loss from leisure noise and answers the question “Can personal stereos damage hearing?” at:
  www.deafnessresearch.org.uk/ 
• The U.S. League for the hard of hearing has a factsheet on noise exposure from MP3 players at:
  www.lhh.org/noise/facts/headsets.html 
• The UK Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) proposes all kinds of information and resources related to hearing impairment at www.rnid.org.uk/information_resources/  , and posted a press release warning that “the MP3 generation is facing premature hearing damage” at: www.rnid.org.uk/mediacentre/press/2006/dltm_research_mp3.htm