I haven't had much luck trying to google for research so far, and it quickly gets frustrating constantly listening to a claim with no obvious backing (that I, or they, know of). Oh, and I should probably mention that the claim is not related to excessive volume damaging my hearing, but that earphones are somehow 'damaging' neurally or otherwise. PS. Sorry if this isn't really in the "Life Science" niche- I didn't really know where else to ask. - David Adam

A good place to ask such things is http://www.auditory.org/ . - Daniel Mietchen

Thanks, I'll check it out :-) - David Adam

What kind of 'damaging' do you think people are referring to, if not actual hearing damage? I'm having trouble imagining what they must be thinking of - Andrew Clegg

Maybe they are thinking about skin irritation, fungus or earwax related problems? - Wladimir Labeikovsky

"Output Levels of Commercially Available Portable Compact Disc Players and the Potential Risk to Hearing" (Fligor, Brian J.; Cox, L Clarke, Ear & Hearing) does provide evidence that intra-aural headphones (earbuds) are riskier than extra-aural, and that duration is as important a component to hearing damage as volume. - Mickey Schafer

Conclusions: Based on measured sound pressure levels across systems and the noise dose model recommended by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for protecting the occupational worker, a maximum permissible noise dose would typically be reached within 1 hr of listening with the volume control set to 70% of maximum gain using supra-aural headphones. Using headphones that resulted in boosting the output level (e.g., insert earphones used in this study) would significantly decrease the maximum safe volume control setting; this effect was unpredictable from one manufacturer to another. In the interest of providing a straightforward recommendation that should protect the hearing of the majority of consumers, reasonable guidelines would include a recommendation to limit headphone use to 1 hr or less per day if using supra-aural style headphones at a gain control setting of 60% of maximum. - Mickey Schafer

Having a Japanese girlfriend might be another approach. Don't know if there are studies that establish how much exposure to that is possible without detrimental effects. - Eric Jain

Eric++ :-)) - Pierre Lindenbaum

Sigh. don't even get me started you guys... - Shirley Wu

Yep, I vouch for the Japanese girls. - pn

I have to use this opportunity to cite a paper my Dad wrote when he was an audiologist for a professor at U. Mich. in 1969. "Effects of too-loud music on human ears. But, mother, rock'n roll has to be loud." http://www.citeulike.org/user... and you can get the PDF here: http://openwetware.org/wiki... - Steve Koch

He used to bug me all the time about using headphones with my "walkman" (remember those?). Plus he helped me with my 9th grade science project (testing sound-blocking effectiveness of earplugs), most importantly with my project title: "stick it in your ear!" - Steve Koch

As for the people warning you: your brain is being slowly rewired to optimally process sound coming from two independent speakers. This is irreversible re-wiring. But I'd assume it's negligible compared with the physical changes occurring due to the learning of Japanese. - Steve Koch

Wow, thanks a bunch for all that great insight :-) So it seems there is evidence to suggest that earphones can damage my hearing. I had kind of suspected that. However, I tend to find that a lot of people think that it might have a damaging effect on the brain (in addition to the ears). ie. causing brain tumours. It seems to me that this is a ridiculous claim. - David Adam

Just for the fun of it, a novoseek search using "nihl brain damage" turned up a few medline articles that seem to suggest you should be taking your vitamins:-): http://tinyurl.com/d4rfcq - Mickey Schafer