A new hearing study that was done by Ghent University in Belgium has found that listening to even 1 hour of music on personal music players like the Apple iPod can cause long term hearing loss. According to the study, this is because your hearing has a temporary change in sensitivity making you think the music isn’t as loud as what it actually is.

The study involved two groups of people of similar age where one group was exposed to varying volumes of rock and pop music for periods of at least an hour. The second  control group,  did not listen to music at all during the study.  Both groups underwent hearing tests before and after the study in which the group exposed to the music was found to show signs of hearing loss.

Research shows that a significant number of people who use personal music devices, tend to have the volume too loud reaching more than 85db which is loud enough over time to cause permanent hearing loss. This is a real concern considering the huge demand of these devices particularly in younger generations.