WHO Warns against the Harmful Use of Smartphones

More than one billion young people across the world are at the risk of losing their hearing capability because of the excessive use of smartphones and other audio devices, warns WHO and therefore it has proposed new safety standards for safe volume levels.

In order to ensure safe hearing, the World Health Organization and International Telecommunications Union have issued a non-binding international standard for the manufacture and use of audio devices including smartphones. 

The new finding says young people, between the age group of 12 and 35 years are prone to risky listening habits and the number is 1.1 billion people in the world, who are at the risk due to “prolonged and excessive exposure to loud sounds, including music they listen to through personal audio devices” the health agency said.

WHO Chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that the world already has said in a statement, “It should not be the case that so many young people continue to damage their hearing while listening to music. Young people must understand that once they lose their hearing, it won't come back”.

At present, nearly five percent of the world’s population, which is around 466 million people, including 34 million children, suffers from hearing loss. WHO though said it is still unclear how many of them have damaged their hearing through the harmful use of audio devices. 

The new hearing standards developed by WHO and ITU would go a long way in order to protect the young consumers. In the hearing safety standard, WHO considers a volume above 85 decibels for eight hours or 100 decibels for 15 minutes as unsafe.

The safety measures developed by World Health Organization and International Telecommunications Union also calls for the use of “sound allowance” software, which has to be included in all audio devices by the manufacturer to track the volume level and duration of a users, exposed to sound, which can also evaluate the risk posed by hearing. The system can also alert a user if they cross dangerous listening habits.

In Geneva, Shelly Chadha of WHO has said, “Think of it like driving on a highway, but without a speedometer in your car or a speed limit. What we’ve proposed is that your smartphones come fitted with a speedometer, with a measurement system which tells you how much sound you’re getting and tells you if you are going over the limit”.

WHO is also calling for parental as well as automatic volume controls on audio devices in order to prevent dangerous use of smartphones. While some smartphones and audio devices already offer some of these features, but the United Nations would like to see a uniform standard, which can be used across the world to help protect against disabling hearing loss.