I was driving home yesterday listening to Pete Wilson on KGO. He was talking about a lawsuit that somewhere in the country concerning the IPOD devices. Apparently, the lawsuit claims that the IPOD is “defective” because it allows the user to adjust the volume to 115 db – which is high enough to cause permanent degradation of hearing after something like38 seconds.
Mr. Wilson’s position, which was agreed to by all of the callers, is that this is a frivolous lawsuit and that it is not the place of the legal system to protect people from themselves. His point is that the device has a volume control and you can always turn the volume down and not damage your hearing. He used a number of examples of his thesis such as the ability of some cars to go 150 miles per hour, the extremely load volume used at rock concerts, and the volume control on your car radio (actually I don’t think my car radio can get close to 115 db).
He made an interesting point that for sales to France, Apple has elected to limit the maximum volume to 100 db. He also pointed out that as a news person he has worn very loud earphones for so many years that it has damaged his hearing, and that this was his choice and therefore somehow acceptable.
I find all of this to be interesting. First off, if his employer has been providing him with earphones that have caused permanent hearing damage, they have been breaking the law because OSHA prohibits exposure to noise levels that will result in such injuries. Actually, my guess is that he is getting older and probably was exposed to excessive noise levels in other ways – but he might be correct, his employer might well have been breaking the law.
My guess the reason that Apple limits the noise levels for sales to France is that they are complying with the European Union law which protects people from excessive risks from products. The United States doesn’t seem to think this is very important and has very few laws or regulations designed to protect people from injury from products. The recourse in the USA is to sue the manufacturer, rather than implement safety requirements as part of our law. We end up having a lot of excessively dangerous products until enough people have been injured, or killed, to make a lawsuit worthwhile. Personally, I consider this to be a barbaric approach to product safety, but that is the way that it is. Luckily for us, the European Union is influencing many products on a global scale and we all get additional protection.
Now to the specific issue of whether or not the IPOD is “defective” because of excessive noise levels. I can’t really say one way or another because that is a legal term that can only be decided in court. However, it is my personal opinion that it is defective. My reasoning includes (but is not limited to) the ideas that the manufacturer knows that many of the users will be children, and that children do not necessarily have the ability to make decisions that protect their future health – especially if there is no means available for determining that harm is being done. Parents can’t effective monitor the noise levels being used by their children because the noise is personal in nature, it fills the ear but not the room. From a few feet away the noise is not detectable even if it is turned up full blast. Even if parents happen to discover that they are playing the thing too loud, they can only monitor while the child is in the area – once the kid is away from the parent they can, and do, turn the volume up to full blast. Apple knows this, and knows (or should know) that many children and young people play the device at, or near, full volume most of the time.
There are warnings to not play the device too loud for too long, but there is no way for a person to know what that means. There is no indication that the volume is too loud and dangerous. In fact, there is no immediate way for a person to know that they have damaged their hearing. It takes time, and tests, to determine that one’s hearing has degraded. It is one of those things that sneaks up on you without warning.
So, as it stands millions of young people are potentially exposed to sound levels that are known to cause permanent, and serious, hearing damage. There is no means available for those persons to know the extent of the injuries, or the extent of the risk that they are exposing themselves to. The manufacturer knows all about this, but has elected to take the position that it is better to enhance sales and injury millions of people than to back off a bit and injure none. It appears to be a sales decision, one that is good for them but bad for their customers.
By the way, it isn’t just Apple that is doing this kind of thing, there are other personal music systems (using hear phones) that are every bit as dangerous as the IPOD. It seems to be the norm in the industry to take the position of “let the buyer beware,” but that doesn’t make it right.
Oh yes, I almost forgot to address the issue of the fast cars. It turns out that we do not assume that it is alright for people to drive as fast as they want and take whatever risks they want. We have lots of laws that limit speeds to what is considered “safe enough.” Speeding is not okay, and is actively regulated throughout the country. I personally think building cars that are capable of 150 mph is crazy since there is no place to legally drive them except on a race track. Race tracks are an entirely different issue, and in fact are heavily regulated themselves, including special vehicle designs, special driver training, and self-regulations by the industry. Building a fast car in an environment where speed is highly regulated and the risks are relatively easy to judge is not at all the same thing as handing a dangerous device to a child and hoping that they don’t harm themselves – especially when neither the child nor the supervising parent can determine what is risky and what is not.
