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Turn Down the Volume on iPods.

LONG BRANCH, NJ, February 7, 2006 - "Turn those speakers up full blast/Play it all night long . . ." Warren Zevon once sang.

IPod and other MP3 users seem to be following that profoundly bad piece of advice these days, with possibly devastating results for their hearing.

Kelsey Bongiovanni, a 16-year-old high school student from Manchester, isn't that concerned.

"My dad always tells me to turn the music down. I always have the volume turned up all the way."

She says that she listens to her iPod an average of 30 minutes a day.

"I figure it's my hearing. There's a risk with everything you do," Bongiovanni says.

The problems with iPods are similar to problems with older portable CD or cassette players, but they may be worse. People may be listening longer to them, given the amount of music that can be stored in them. Headphones typically used to listen to the music also might cause a problem.

Earbuds, as they are called, are placed directly into the ear. Scientific research has not yet found a link between the proximity of the speaker to the ear, but the "one-size-fits-all" nature of the ear buds presents its own problem.

"One size fits all is a flawed concept," says audiologist Brad Buchholtz at Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch. "Every individual has a different ear canal and the buds may not fit, which means that a lot of outside noise will get in, which causes people to turn the volume up even more."

That's where the trouble may lie.

"The volume should never be turned up beyond two-thirds of maximum," Buchholtz says. "For every 3- to 5-decibel increase in volume, the duration of time exposed to that volume should be halved."

Another way to put it, he says, is: "If somebody standing next to you can hear your music, it's too loud."

The bottom line, Buchholtz says, is that many people listen to their music too loudly, for too long and with poorly designed earphones. We're going to see some 15-year-olds with the hearing acuity of a 30-year-old, he says.

"Hearing loss is not reversible," Buchholtz stresses.

Loss of hearing can happen in a number of ways. A single exposure to extremely loud sounds can cause permanent hearing loss. But long-term exposure to loud music can cause damage to the ear as well, damaging or destroying hair cells located in the inner ear. That loss may not show up for years.

"Supra-aural headphones," those that cover the entire ear, cut down on the ambient noise and may encourage people to keep the volume down. There are also sound-minimizing headsets available that cut down on ambient noise seeping in.

Annie Sullivan, 17, of Manchester has had her iPod for about a year and listens to it about an hour a day at the maximum volume.

She says she wasn't aware of the possible damage it could do.

"I am now," she says.

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