Hearing Loss Appeal Won By Apple!
Claims pursued for hearing damage are not always targeted at former employers in traditional heavy manufacturing industries, fabrication, automobile factories and shipyards!
An original class-action US lawsuit filed in 2006 by a disgruntled Louisiana iPod buyer and then supported by a similar claim in the same year, aimed to hold Apple responsible for possible hearing loss caused by their iPods.
The claim was rejected by the appeals court, which affirmed the 2008 district court ruling, saying that the plaintiffs failed to show that iPod use posed “unreasonable risk of noise induced hearing loss.”
The original argument was that the iPod ear buds were designed to be placed deep in the ear canal, which increases the danger of hearing damage. They did not allege the iPods failed to do anything they were designed to do nor do they allege that they, or any others, have suffered or are substantially certain to suffer inevitable hearing loss or other injury from iPod use.
At most, the plaintiffs claimed there was a potential risk of hearing loss not to themselves, but to other unidentified iPod users.
A further claim was that Apple iPod could play its music at 104 decibels, a level of noise on par with helicopters or lawn mowers. They also said that iPods pose a danger because of their lack of volume meters or noise-isolating properties, despite being capable of producing sound as loud as 115 decibels. The plaintiffs had sought money damages, and to require Apple to improve safety and disclosures, provide better headphones, and test iPod users for hearing loss.
Even though Apple does state in its manual that users should be careful when increasing the device’s volume levels, the customers argued that the company did not make explicitly clear just how loud that volume could go, and a real potential for being one of the many known deafness causes.
Apple has sold over 220 million iPods since 2001, and each unit comes with a warning telling users to listen to their music and movies at ‘safe’ volume levels.
Aware that these kinds of complaints were possible, Apple in 2006 released software that allowed parents to limit the volume on their kids’ iPods.