Earphones damaging

The guitarist of a clasic rock band is the latest to crusade against hearing loss and the use of iPod's earbuds. Pete Townshend, of The Who, has issued a statement via his website to to iPods and other similar devices.

Progress on a new The Who album has been slow since Townshend must now take breaks in between recording sessions to rest his ears.

Townshend has traditionally shied away from public statements about his hearing, but his concern has brought him to speak of this issue in the diaries of his website. "Hearing loss is a terrible thing because it cannot be repaired," Townshend noted on his site. "If you use an iPod or anything like it, or your child uses one, you may be ok ... But my intuition tells me there is terrible trouble ahead."

Mr. Townshend acknowledged the rise in personal audio use, lamenting that the downside of downloading music onto personal media players is that "for privacy, for respect to family and co-workers, and for convenience - we use earphones at almost every stage of interaction with sound."

Townshend expressed his feeling of responsibility for the rise in a musical style which requires high decibels to attain the desired sounds. He articulated frustration at his condition, noting that "you can write [music] when you’re deaf, but you can’t hear it or perform it."

by MacNN Staff