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10 Feb 2010 16:52:19
Don’t let listening to music lose its enjoyment – that’s the message of a charity campaign aimed at music lovers which visited the University recently.
Run by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), the largest charity for deaf and hard of hearing people, the Don’t Lose the Music campaign aims to inform music lovers how and why they should protect their hearing so they can enjoy music for longer.
The Don’t Lose the Music team tested the volume of students’ personal music players and advised them whether or not they were listening at a safe level. BBC cameras were also on hand to capture footage for a BBC 1 programme to be aired next month.
Campaign coordinator Aisling Brosnahan said: “Our message is that if you love music you should protect your ears now so you can enjoy music for as long as possible. Many people don’t realise that listening to loud music for long periods can damage your hearing.
“Dulled hearing and ringing in ears after listening to music are signs that your hearing has been damaged. However, you may still be damaging your hearing even if you don’t have these symptoms.”
Students were invited to put their headphones on the sound measuring device ‘Derek the head’ which after listening to 30 seconds of a student’s favourite track gave a rating of green, amber or red. Green indicated a safe noise level, amber was a cause for concern and red for dangerous levels.
Media Production student Leslie Wai’s MP3 player turned Derek amber. He said: “I like to listen to music loudly so I can hear the baseline. But I now realise that I need to turn it down slightly.”
First-year Criminology student Naamah Palmer, said: “I got amber from Derek, but I thought I was going to get red, so it’s not as bad as I thought. I will definitely turn my music down now, after the advice from the RNID.”
The RNID has four top tips for protecting people’s hearing when listening to a personal music player:
Aisling added: “An increase of only a few decibels has a dramatic effect on the danger to hearing – this is because each increase of three decibels represents a doubling of sound energy and halves the time you should listen for.”
Coverage of the campaign on Inside Out is due to be shown on Monday, 15 February at 7.30pm on BBC 1 in the East region.
For further information on the Don’t Lose The Music campaign visit www.dontlosethemusic.com
