It is, of course, fashionable for famous fanwriters to be deaf. But as I’m no longer a fanwriter, and hopefully no longer famous, I’m not eager to lose my hearing. I am, however, spending a lot of time listening to my MP3 player on headphones, so I was very interested by this article on the dangers (or not) of doing so.

Of course there’s nothing specific there about a Dell DJ, but it appears that all of these things are very similar. I’m pleased to see that ear buds are no more dangerous that headphones. I’m also encourged by the fact that I generally don’t have my volume cranked up anywhere near 50%. However, the authors of the study are quite right when they talk about people using a much higher volume when they are in places of high ambient noise. It is all very well suggesting that you use music players in quiet locations, but very often the very places you want to use them are noisy: trains and aircraft come to mind. I’m therefore very happy that the latest carry-on luggage regulations do now allow me enough space to take my noise-reduction headphones with me.