Don't Lose The Music is brought to you by RNID

Don't Lose the Music goes Inside Out for the BBC

Our Don't Lose the Music team tested the volume of Bedfordshire University students' music players and advised them whether or not they were listening at a safe level. BBC cameras were also on hand to capture footage for the BBC1 programme to be aired next month.
Testing personal music players at Bedfordshire University

Students were invited to put their headphones on the sound measuring device 'Derek the head' that listened to students' favourite tracks and gives a rating of green, amber or red. Green indicates a safe noise level, amber a cause for concern and red for dangerous levels.

What students said

if you love music you should protect your ears now so you can enjoy music for as long as possible

Media Production student Leslie Wai's MP3 player turned Derek amber. Leslie said: "I like to listen to music loudly so I can hear the baseline. But I now realise that I need to turn it down slightly."
 
First-year Criminology student Naamah Palmer, said: "I got amber from Derek, but I thought I was going to get red, so it's not as bad as I thought. I will definitely turn my music down now, after the advice from the RNID."

Our four tips when listening to a personal music player

  1. Take regular breaks from your headphones to give your ears a rest. 
  2. Turn down the volume a notch - even a small reduction in volume can make a big difference to the risk of damage to your hearing. 
  3. Avoid using the volume to drown out background noise. Invest in sound cancelling headphones. 
  4. If your MP3 player has a safe limit feature, use it so you have control of the volume you are listening at. 

Our Campaign Co-ordinater, Aisling Brosnahan said: “If you love music you should protect your ears now so you can enjoy music for as long as possible. Many people don't realise that listening to loud music for long periods can damage your hearing. Dulled hearing and ringing in ears after listening to music are signs that your hearing has been damaged. However, you may still be damaging your hearing even if you don't have these symptoms."

Aisling added: "An increase of only a few decibels has a dramatic effect on the danger to hearing – this is because each increase of three decibels represents a doubling of sound energy and halves the time you should listen for." 
 
Coverage of the campaign on Inside Out is due to be shown on Monday 22 February at 7.30pm on BBC1 in the East region.