Listening to music and audio with headphones can bring a lot of joy. However, sometimes we are easy to get lost in the music and tune out the world. Or too much exposure to loud sound through headphones can damage your hearing or even cause permanent hearing loss. As a headphone user, it is important to understand the potential risks associated with headphones. And avoid the risks so that we can use them safely and enjoy your tunes without worry. Here we’ll discuss what headphone safety is, why it’s important, and how you can use headphone safety function well.
Table of Contents
What is Headphone Safety?
Headphone safety refers to understanding the potential risks of wearing headphones and adjusting their use accordingly. It is an important feature that can help protect your hearing, and also known as “ear protection”. It lowers the volume when it senses high decibels, which can be helpful if you’re listening to music in a loud environment.
Why is Headphone Safety Feature Important?
As a headphone user, I believe most of them would love to listening music or something to relax daily to keep away from the noisy world. Whenever we stay alone, or on the way to work or back home. Even we are running outdoors with headphones. However, we should know to be aware of the potential risks associated with using them and take steps to reduce those risks.
1. Ears Health
Prolonged exposure to sound levels higher than 70 dB can cause permanent hearing loss over time, and many headphones are capable of producing sound levels higher than 100 dB. Once you suffer hearing loss, there’s no way for you to regain it.
2. Personal Safety
Wearing headphones also increases the risk of other accidents or injuries due to distractions caused by listening to music while operating machinery or walking down busy streets. Other accidents or injuries resulting from distractions caused by listening with headphones could have more serious consequences than just a broken phone or scratched knee – death or serious injury.
3. Ear Hygiene Problem
If not used correctly, headphones can cause skin irritation or infection from bacteria build-up on the earpads.
Therefore, we need to take some measures to avoid the potential above and keep our safe. This is also why headphone safety existing and why we need it.
How Does Headphone Safety Work?
The headphone safety feature work by taking precautionary measures to protect your ears and your personal safety.
It works from the following methods:
1. keeping the volume at a safe level (below 85 decibels).
85 decibels is as loud as heavy city traffic. It will limit your music sound while you operating machinery or walking down busy streets to make sure you can hear the city traffic.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that sounds should not exceed 70 dB. Below is the example sound levels provided by Apple’s official.
2. It limits how long you wear them each day.
It automatically kicks in when the recommended 7-day audio exposure limit of 80 dB for 40 hours has been reached. This ensures that you are able to enjoy all of your favorite tunes without worrying about some potential risks associated with headphone usage!
Discover the Volume Danger Zone: Protect Yourself from Hearing Loss
It’s a common misconception that exposure to loud noises is only harmful at the moment. The truth is that the volume level of a sound and the amount of time you’re listening to it have a significant impact on your hearing health. For instance, if you’re experiencing sound at 80 decibels or louder for prolonged periods (over 40 hours per week), you’re increasing your chances of hearing loss. Up the volume to 90 dB, and your risk of damage kicks in after just 4 hours per week. But you don’t have to crank it to extreme levels to put your hearing at risk. Even listening to sounds at over 100 dB for just a few minutes per week can be damaging. Don’t take your hearing health lightly!
What Kind of Devices have Headphone Safety Functions?
Apple iPhones have had a headphone safety feature since iOS 14 was released in 2020. This feature allows users to set a maximum audio level for their headphones, which helps protect their ears from long-term damage caused by excessive sound levels.
The feature will also work on all Android new devices. Like Samsung Galaxy phones with Android 10 and later, Google Pixel phones with Android 9 and later, and OnePlus phones running Oxygen OS 11.0 or higher. And you can check to know whether the devices have this function before you buy them.
How to Set Headphone Safety on iPhone?
- Go to the iPhone “setting” and find the “Sound & Haptics”
- Tab on the ” Sound &Haptics”
- Find the “Headphone Safety” and tab on it”
- Open the ” Headphone Notifications” and ” Reduce Loud Sounds”
- The sound setting will default to 85 decibels as loud as heavy city traffic. You can set it lower based on your preference, but please don’t set it louder than 85. Or it will lose its function.
Can I Disable the Headphone Safety?
Yes, you can disable the Headphone Safety feature on your iPhone. You can turn it off on your device. But turning off the headphone safety is not recommended unless absolutely necessary.
When you turn off the function, your headphones will no longer reduce loud sounds automatically. But you can still manually adjust the volume of your device if needed. It’s important to keep in mind that disabling this feature could put you at risk of hearing damage over time if you don’t take measures to protect your ears by listening at a safe level.
How to Turn Off Headphone Safety on iPhone?
- Go to iPhone “Setting” and find ” Sounds & Haptics”
- Tab on ” Sounds & Haptics”
- Find the ”Headphone Notifications“ and close it
- Find the ”Reduce Loud Sound“ and close it
- Then you have turned off your iPhone headphone safety
How to Turn Off Headphone Safety on Android Device?
- Go to Settings and tap on “Sound”.
- Under the “Sound” section, tap on the headphone icon.
- Disable the “Safety Headphones” option.
Tips for Using Headphone Safely
Here are some tips for using headphones safely to reduce your risk of hearing loss:
- Keep the volume below 85 decibels (dB). This is the World Health Organization’s recommended safe level for exposure over time.
- Take regular breaks from listening with headphones or earbuds throughout the day. This will give your ears a chance to rest and recover.
- For noise cancelling headphones, use them on the lowest setting possible and keep them at least an arm’s length away from your head.
- Invest in high quality, noise-reducing headphones that adequately cover your ears so you don’t have to turn up the volume too loud to hear what you’re listening to.
- If possible, avoid sharing headphones with other people as this can increase your risk of exposure to harmful bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
- Pay attention to any discomfort you experience while wearing headphones or earbuds. If after a couple minutes you feel pressure or pain in your ears, stop listening and take a break.
In conclusion
Headphone safety is an important consideration for all headphone users! Whether we are using them casually for leisure activities or professionally for work purposes. Headphone safety can help us to protect our ears. By limiting how long they are worn each day and keeping the volume at a safe level, we can be able to enjoy all of our favorite tunes without worrying about any potential harm!