IPods Too Loud, Say Docs

Open Medicine comes up with the least rock-n-roll editorial of the year. Psshh. Doctors.

A Canadian medical journal has effectively turned into that old woman on the bus clucking her teeth over the volume at which youngsters blare their iPods by calling on the federal government to regulate just how loud such personal music devices can be. Open Medicine, an online journal, has published an editorial asking for government to protect Canadians' ear health by introducing decibel limits on iPods and other mp3 players (if there are still other brands of mp3 player out there. We're not sure). Europe has already done as much, although it provides an override command – and a gentle warning – for users who wish to rock the heck out at less-safe volumes. While we appreciate the time Open Medicine has taken to worry about our ear health, and while we Canadians are a wonderfully deferent and subservient bunch when it comes to government regulations, we urge them to turn down their racket over loud iPods. If our cursory research is any indication, the people blaring their music at dangerous volumes listen mostly to unlistenable crap, anyway. Going deaf might just be the best thing to happen to them.