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Headphone, time, volume affect hearing

CINCINNATI, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- If you don't want your earphones attached to a hearing aid and not an MP3 player, turn down the volume or cut the time you listen, say two U.S. studies.

Two studies on listening to music players through various ear devices showed that listening for long times at loud levels can damage hearing, WebMD.com said. Both studies concluded that the higher the volume, the less time should be spent listening through earbuds or headphones.

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The studies will be presented during the Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Children at Work and Play conference in Cincinnati, WebMD.com said.

The University of Colorado at Boulder study set recommended daily listening times using earbuds, sound-isolating headphones and ear-covering headphones when the volume was 80 percent of maximum, WebMD.com said. The results: earbuds, 90 minutes a day; sound-isolating headphones, 50 minutes; ear-covering headphones, nearly 5 hours.

If the sound levels were between 10 percent to 50 percent of maximum volumes listening time was limitless, the medical news service said.

The Harvard Medical School study researched how people wearing headphones reacted when sound levels increased in a room, WebMD.com reported. As noise levels increased, the subjects tended to increase the headphone volume to more risky levels, WebMD.com said.

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