Loud Music Can Damage Your Hearing in Less Than 30 Seconds

According to a recent report by the World Health Organization, you won't even get past the opening act at the average rock concert before damaging your hearing. In fact, at loudness levels of 120 decibels, it takes just 28 seconds.

To put that in perspective, Deep Purple set the original Guinness World Record in 1972 with a sound level of 117 dB at the London Rainbow Theatre. The Who upped the ante in 1976, checking in with a 126-dB performance at the Valley in London. In 2009, Kiss were forced to turn it down during a show in Ottawa, when levels reached 136 decibels.

By the way, you're no safer cranking up a personal audio device, where maximum volumes top out at about 105 decibels. According to World Health scientists, that's a safe level for just four minutes.

What does all this mean? More than 1.1 billion teens and young adults are now at risk of permanently damaging their hearing. And more than 43 million people between 12 and 35 could have already suffered some form of hearing loss. As many as 40 percent were exposed to these damaging sound levels at clubs and bars, claim experts.

The organization recommends that fans limit their use of personal audio devices to less than one hour a day. "That's a rough recommendation -- it is not by the minute -- to give an idea to those spending 10 hours a day listening to an mp3 player," Dr. Etienne Krug, the WHO's director for injury prevention, told the BBC. "But even an hour can be too much if the volume is too loud."

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