Hong Kong hearing specialists are considering launching a study to find out if prolonged high-volume use of MP3 players can affect hearing.

Sunday's South China Morning Post reported that the plan follows a surge in the MP3 sales and an Australian report on the growing incidence of tinnitus -- ringing in the ears -- among young people.

Hong Kong hearing experts gave the warning as more and more people pump up the volume of their players to block out the surrounding noise.

The Australian government study indicated that nearly 25 percent of the MP3 users in the country were damaging their ears by turning up the music to "excessive and damaging levels."

Clinical audiologist for the OTIC Speech and Hearing Center Loretta Li Yuet-wing warned that turning the volume past the halfway mark is already too loud and the process of listening to MP3 player in the subway is also the process of damaging ones' ears.

Li was cited as saying that "Hong Kong people are already predisposed to hearing losses because the rising level of noise pollution here and the fact the Cantonese is a loud language".

It is reported that more than 200,000 portable music devices are shipped to Hong Kong each month.

Hearing specialist John Woo Kong-sang said Chinese University of Hong Kong was keen to launch a study to see how loud portable music players can get and how many decibels each increment was equivalent to.

Woo warned that a volume of 96 decibels two hours a day can damage one's ears. As the background noise on subway is about 80 decibels, one has to turn the volume up to 90 or 100 decibels to clearly hear the music.

People hearing music from MP3 players can be spotted on streets, buses and subways here and there in the city.  

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2005)