The European Commission has recently sent a mandate to CENELEC (the EU standardisation body) requiring new technical safety standards to be drawn up for personal music players.
Under the existing EU standards a statement must be included in the instruction manual warning of the adverse effects of exposure to excessive sound level but there is no maximum sound limit and no specific labeling requirements in respect of volume levels.
The European Commission wants to impose default maximum noise limit on personal music players. It has warned that at 80 decibels, exposure should be limited to 40 hours a week and at 89 decibels exposure should not exceed five hours a week. These exposure sound levels shall be the default settings on products, according to the Commission’s proposal.
The Commission has therefore announced new default volume settings for new personal music players. According to the Consumer Affairs Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, “These standards make small technical changes to players so that by default, normal use is safe. If consumers chose to override the default settings they can, but there will be clear warnings so they know the risks they are taking."
The mandate does not prescribe the types of warnings for consumers on the risks involved by changing the default settings but it may include labels on the device or digital information on the screen.
The Commission has, therefore, asked the Cenelec to develop new technical safety standards. The Commission will monitor compliance with the standards by industry, and then will decide if further action is needed. EU standards are not mandatory but manufacturers that decide not to apply them will have to run costly independent testing for products.
