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About 50 percent of 12- to 35-year-olds, or 1.1 billion people, are at risk of hearing loss as a result of "prolonged and excessive exposure to loud sounds," according to the WHO.
"Given that we have the know-how to prevent hearing loss, there should not be so many young people who continue to damage their hearing by listening to music," said the Director General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Currently, 5% of the world's population, or 466 million people, including 34 million children, suffer from hearing loss. WHO does not know, however, what percentage is related to the misuse of audio devices.
The new standard, developed by the WHO in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union, another UN agency, recommends that manufacturers of these devices include in smartphones and audio players systems for evaluating the risks related to the sound volume.
These systems would inform the user about the sound level and the duration of listening and alert them in case of danger.
"For now, we only have our instinct" to tell us if the volume is too high, said WHO doctor Shelly Chadha during a press briefing in Geneva.
"It's like driving on a highway, but without a speedometer in your car or speed limit. What we're proposing is that your smart phones have a speedometer, a measurement system that tells you how much of the sound you're getting, and tells you if you're over the limit. " she said.
WHO is also proposing to introduce parental volume control or automatic volume limitation.
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