In reality the answer is yes, headphones could be very harmful to your ears. 

A group with the University of Leicester only just proved that noises louder than 110 intensity cause damage to some singular sort nerve cell outside layer, which in turn may cause tinnitus (principally a buzzing or droning within the ears – and here is me thinking that it simply made everything sound ‘a tad tinny’) and also temporary deafness in a few cases. 

Reported by medical medical news today.com, who reported on the University’s findings, the myelin sheath may be a kind of outside layer that protects the nerve cells that attach the ears with the brain. Any sound over a hundred decibels begins to wear away this coating, meaning that the signals will finally stop getting to the brain. Given time, the myelin sheath will typically (but not at all times) heal itself and reform, giving you the damage only being brief. Still, it’s a thing to think about. 

As for more permanent damage, well, the facts have been startling. According to TIME magazine’s Laura Blue,  

“Hearing loss is more common than ever before. About 16% of American adults have an impaired ability to hear speech, and more than 30% of Americans over age 20 — an estimated 55 million people — have lost some high-frequency hearing”. 

These shocking figures were put forward in the ‘Archives of Internal Medicine’ journal and initially published in ’08. Following this publication, Blue interviewed Brian Fligor, who was, at the time, the director of diagnostic audiology at Children’s Hospital Boston. Inside the interview, Fligor stated, 

“If you’re using the earbuds that come with an iPod and you turn the volume up to about 90% of maximum and you listen a total of two hours a day, five days a week, our best estimates are that the people who have more sensitive ears will develop a rather significant degree of hearing loss — on the order of 40 decibels (dB). That means the quietest sounds audible are 40 dB loud. Now, this is high-pitched hearing loss, so a person can still hear sounds and understand most speech. The impact is going to be most clearly noted when the background-noise level goes up, when you have to focus on what someone is saying. Then it can really start to impair your ability to communicate”. 

Thus, the question now results in being, what are you able to do to reduce the danger? 

Sam Costello of About.com suggests turning down the amount, which is fairly evident, actually. Though, (s)he also suggests accessing the ‘volume control’ on your iPod or device and reducing the maximum volume setting (synch it to the pc for further such features), and also listening for shorter durations of time and switching from earbuds to ‘over the ear’ headset. Earbuds are one of the most hazardous headset type, in fact. 

Just for the record, the common Us iPod can produce about a hundred and fifteen decibels, that’s like attending a fairly loud rock concert (although not only a Motorhead gig obviously – now that’s a group which almost guarantees absolute deafness for at least a couple of days afterwards, trust me). 

However, the excellent news is that when you’re inside the EU, your iPod is restricted to 100db maximum output by law. Although you’re still in danger if you turn the volume all the way up and listen to it all day long, that danger is significantly fewer on our side of the pond.