Hardly a subway ride goes by without being subjected to the sounds of some insufferable song squeaking out of some teenager's person's earbuds, reminding you that tonight's gonna be a good good night. While Mayor Bloomberg can't personally come rip the headphones off the heads of loud-music-loving New Yorkers, he can launch an adorably hopeful campaign in an effort to get today's youth to turn their music down.
According to the NY Post, Bloomberg's health officials are "planning a social-media campaign to warn young people about the risk of losing their hearing from listening to music at high volume on personal MP3 players." An iPod can reportedly hit 115 decibels, even though research warns that above 85 decibels encroaches on unsafe levels.
A rep for the DoH says the "public-education campaign is being developed to raise awareness about safe use of personal music players... and risks of loud and long listening." Hearing loss went up 30% amongst teens between 1988 and 2006, according to one health survey. And while hearing loss is the spin of the campaign, if it has any success it will help with Bloomberg's quality-of-life initiatives as well—he has taken on noise levels since he started out in office.
The campaign will cost $250,000 (or 1,250 pairs of Dre Beats headphones) and is being financed through a Fund for Public Health grant.
