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 exposure.[1] 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.
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