Safe listening is a framework for health promotion actions to ensure that sound-related recreational activities (such as concerts, nightclubs, and listening to music, broadcasts, or podcasts) do not pose a risk to hearing.
While research shows that repeated exposures to any loud sounds can cause hearing disorders and other health effects, safe listening applies specifically to voluntary listening through personal listening systems, personal sound amplification products (PSAPs), or at entertainment venues and events. Safe listening promotes strategies to prevent negative effects, including hearing loss, tinnitus, and hyperacusis. While safe listening does not address exposure to unwanted sounds (which are termed noise) – for example, at work or from other noisy hobbies – it is an essential part of a comprehensive approach to total hearing health. The risk of negative health effects from sound exposures (be it noise or music) is primarily determined by the intensity of the sound (loudness), duration of the event, and frequency of that exposure. These three factors characterize the overall sound energy level that reaches a person's ears and can be used to calculate a noise dose. They have been used to determine the limits of noise exposure in the workplace. Both regulatory and recommended limits for noise exposure were developed from hearing and noise data obtained in occupational settings, where exposure to loud sounds is frequent and can last for decades. Although specific regulations vary across the world, most workplace best practices consider 85 decibels (dB A-weighted) averaged over eight hours per day as the highest safe exposure level for a 40-year lifetime. Using an exchange rate, typically 3 dB, allowable listening time is halved as the sound level increases by the selected rate. For example, a sound level as high as 100 dBA can be safely listened to for only 15 minutes each day. Because of their availability, occupational data have been adapted to determine damage-risk criteria for sound exposures outside of work. In 1974, the US Environmental Protection Agency recommended a 24-hour exposure limit of 70 dBA, taking into account the lack of a "rest period" for the ears when exposures are averaged over 24 hours and can occur every day of the year (workplace exposure limits assume 16 hours of quiet between shifts and two days a week off). In 1995, the World Health Organization (WHO) similarly concluded that 24-hour average exposures at or below 70 dBA pose a negligible risk for hearing loss over a lifetime. Following reports on hearing disorders from listening to music, additional recommendations and interventions to prevent adverse effects from sound-related recreational activities appear necessary.
Public health and community interventions Several organizations have developed initiatives to promote safe listening habits. The U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) has guidelines for safely listening to personal music players geared toward the "tween" population (children aged 9–13 years). The Dangerous Decibels program promotes the use of "Jolene" mannequins to measure output of PLSs as an educational tool to raise awareness of overexposure to sound through personal listening. This type of mannequin is simple and inexpensive to construct and is often an attention-grabber at schools, health fairs, clinic waiting rooms, etc. The National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL), the research division of Hearing Australia, developed the Know Your Noise initiative, funded by the Australian Government Department of Health. The Know Your Noise website has a Noise Risk Calculator that makes it possible and easy for users to identify and understand their levels of noise exposure (at work and play), and possible risks of hearing damage. Users can also take an online hearing test to see how well they hear in a noisy background. The WHO launched the Make Listening Safe initiative as part of the celebration of World Hearing Day on 3 March 2015. The initiative's main goal is to ensure that people of all ages can enjoy listening to music and other audio media in a manner that does not create a hearing risk. Noise-induced hearing loss, hyperacusis, and tinnitus have been associated with the frequent use at high volume of devices such as headphones, headsets, earpieces, earbuds, and True Wireless Stereo technologies of any type. Make Listening Safe aims to:
raise awareness about safe listening practices, especially among the younger population; highlight the benefits of safe listening to policy-makers, health professionals, manufacturers, parents, and others; foster the development and implementation of standards applicable to personal audio devices and recreational venues to cover safe listening features become a depository of open-access resources and information on safe listening practices in at least six languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish). In 2019 the World Health Organization published a toolkit for safe listening devices and systems that provides the rationale for the proposed strategies, and identifies actions that governments, industry partners and the civil society can take.
On 1 November 2023 the WHO launched a Make Listening Safe Campaign (MLSC) in the United Kingdom as a pilot to a strategy to encourage the adoption of safe listening practices amongst those between the ages of ten and forty. The MLSC UK will run a sequence of run short campaigns focused on different themes, starting with avoidable risks amongst headphone users. It will include an ePetition requesting the government to adopt higher hearing safeguarding standards/regulations in line with the WHO/International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendations. The plan is to evaluate the effort and later roll it out to its other 193 member states. It includes an in-person launch event, public education focused campaigns, policy advocacy, and collaboration with various stakeholders, including governmental bodies, industry players, and healthcare professionals.
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