Those warnings again: you will go deaf

I put ABC Radio national podcasts into my reader. The exercise led to me philosophising about the past, google searches and the truth...out there somewhere.

My first "fed" podcast was about Ipods and warnings about hearing loss and a solution.


"Researchers at the University of Florida who did audio testing on middle and high-school students found that about 17 percent had some degree of hearing loss. Most of the loss was in higher pitches, which are usually the first ranges of sound to go from loud music-player settings.
With these facts in mind, a company Mad Cat Interactive recently began selling AirDrives earphones, which are designed to protect against hearing loss with a unique design that exceeds the federal OSHA standards for all-day listening.
The earphones rest on the outside of the ears, letting other sounds in and protecting the eardrum against high-pressure, high-decibel sound produced by typical earbuds that sit in the ear canal. AirDrives ($99.99) and AirDrives for Kids ($69.99) keep the sound to 80 decibels, even with an iPod or other music player volume set at 100 percent, the maker says. " Nov 30 2007: ABC News: podcast

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When I was little I was told I would go deaf listening to the wireless so much; blind for reading by torch light and get sick if I let the cat in bed with me.
I survived intact.
In my time as Parent of teenagers, I warned the children about walkmans - and the danger of hearing loss. This kind of information flooded opinion pieces on the radio and in newspapers and was mulled over at dinner parties and mothers' chats:

"In the 1980s, audiologists began cautioning lovers of loud music about hearing loss that could potentially result from use of their Walkman or portable compact disc (CD) players when those devices were on the cutting edge of music listening. “We’re seeing the kind of hearing loss in younger people typically found in aging adults. Unfortunately, the earbuds preferred by music listeners are even more likely to cause hearing loss than the muff-type earphones that were associated with the older devices,” (from a google search)


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What is scientific, what is old hat, and how long before warnings are borne out and who is there to connect them, if ever? Will my son warn his daughter (now one) about going deaf if she listens to her music through whatever device is created in 2017-20?

If the walkman warnings are being borne out, there would be an epidemic of 30+ adults throughout the world with hearing problems and the ipod would have been created by these same 30 year olds with special hearing devices to protect the ear.

I was not taken notice of by the children. After all, I predicted that rap would not last and that Whitney Houston would outlast Madonna.