Hear today...gone tomorrow?

By Sarah Gee on Sep 2, 09 11:03 AM in Going Out

Much has been written about the recent deaths of Birmingham-born conductor Sir Edward Downes and his wife, Lady Joan, at the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland. Whatever your personal views on assisted suicide - or death in the manner and the time of your own choosing, as others see it - it's hard not to be moved by the story of a couple married for decades who took the decision that they couldn't live without each other.

For a musician, such as Sir Edward, losing first your sight and then your hearing must be devastating. Concerns about hearing loss have been exorcising the musical world for years now. Although one might think that rock musicians are at greatest risk, players in our finest orchestras suffer just as often. And recent research shows that you are probably at risk too.

The Royal Philharmonic Society has taken all causes of hearing loss on board in their HearHere! project. Casting off an historically-stuffy image, the RPS has paired up with Deafness Research UK to publish some guidance on listening habits which makes for pretty shocking reading for any iPod user.

I'm perhaps more sensitive to this, given my formative years as a musician, and recurring irritating bouts of tinnitus, which I can attribute to a very loud and memorable evening spent with a Scottish youth orchestra and the Norwegian Army Brass Band (not what you may be thinking, but a performance of Berlioz's Requiem in Bodo Cathedral). But it's because of this that I feel so strongly about preventable hearing damage.

The advice from the RPS suggests limiting the volume on an MP3 player to 60% of its maximum volume, and listening for no more than 60 minutes per day. Anyone tempted to pump up the volume on public transport should consider investing in noise-cancelling headphones, or going retro with older muff-type headphones. Wearing earplugs when in live music venues, on- or off-stage, can reduce sound levels by up to 35 decibels, which could be enough to stop permanent damage to your hearing. And giving your ears time to recover is also important: spending two hours in 100 decibel sound, such as at a gig, needs at least 16 hours of recovery time.

To find out more about safer listening, visit www.hearhere.org.uk We all think that it won't happen to us, but up to 10% of MP3 users are listening to music right now at levels likely to cause hearing loss.

Do yourself a favour and crank down the volume.